BREATHE
by J7339
Summary: Sequel to Responsibility FINALLY FINISHED !
1. Default Chapter

**BREATHE**

**This is a Sequel to the story RESPONSIBILITY – if you haven't read that one you need to so that you understand the**

**characters**** that will be introduced later in the story.  Murphy makes a come back later in the story so for now you **

**will**** just have to be patient until I get to that part.   Enjoy**

"Why aren't I getting any better Kristen?" Lucas said with a little annoyance evident in his voice.  He was immediately

overcome by another painful coughing fit that left him feeling tired and out of breath.

Kristen took the stethoscope from her ears after listening to his chest and looked at the young man sitting before her.

"I honestly don't know Lucas" she answered.    She was trying to use her medical knowledge to work out why the boy

was still feeling so poorly.

The chest infection had stemmed from being aboard the freezing SeaQuest about two weeks ago.  It had been on the 

verge of turning into a full blown bout of pneumonia, but thankfully the antibiotics he had been prescribed had prevented

his condition from deteriorating any further.  The temperature that had been present both on board the vessel and when

Murphy had turned up at the hotel room was not totally gone.

"I have got some friends at the hospital who are better specialists in these types of areas.   I'll give one of them a call and

see whether or not I can get them to take a look at you." Kristen now said, hoping to reassure the teenager.

"Oh great, so not only do I feel awful, I get to be poked and prodded some more." Lucas said in an uninterested voice.

The perpetual tiredness that he had been feeling over the last two weeks was now reappearing and telling him that he needed

to rest.  He couldn't remember a time when he spent so much time in bed.  He didn't have the energy to fight his body's

request though and so sullenly pulled his legs up onto the bed and under the blankets and laid back against the pillow.

"What's wrong with me Kristen" Lucas said with a little bit of fear starting to creep into his voice.  Kristen told him that

it would take a couple of weeks to get rid of the infection from his lungs after being so sick.  But everything about his body

told him that he wasn't getting any better at all.  His body ached just as before, especially his chest.  Sometimes he felt as 

though his lungs were going to burst if he couldn't draw enough breath into them.  His cough was still there and seemed 

to be harsher and drier than before.

"I don't know honey, but I promise you I will find out" Kristen said as she now fussed with the sheets and blankets, making

sure the boy was comfortable enough.  She let out a heavy sigh as she watched him close his eyes and turn onto his side.

The frustration from his lack of energy and his continual cough were evident on his face.  "I promise" she whispered and

closed the door to Lucas's bedroom.

"How is he?" Bridge now asked, getting to his feet.  He had been sitting in the living room for the last half and hour waiting

for Kristen to return and tell her what was going on with Lucas.  He wanted to be in the room with her, but she told him that

she needed to make a diagnosis without any external interference.  She didn't mean it to sound like he was not wanted , but

she thought it best that Lucas and her talked alone for a few minutes.

"Not much better I'm afraid.  And it's starting to get him down." Kristen replied honestly.  "I am going to speak to Doctor

Kavanagh again from the hospital and see who he can recommend to see Lucas tomorrow about this.  I know he hates the

idea of all the tests, but I am really beginning to worry that this is something more than a chest infection.

Kristen spent the next twenty minutes or so talking to various doctors and administration staff at the hospital via the 

video-link.  She had spoken firstly to Doctor Kavanagh who showed some concern about Lucas's body's lack of response

to the antibiotics to shake the chest infection.  He told Kristen of a few colleagues to contact about having some routine

tests performed and a chest x-ray.

"Well what did they say?" Bridger now asked, barely able to keep still with Lucas being sick.

Kristen turned to him and smiled at his obvious impatience.  She knew that he just wanted to do the best for Lucas.  "They

told me that I can take him in to see someone tomorrow at 11.00am.  They are going to do a few simple tests and  then have

a look at his chest with an x-ray.  Hopefully all of  that will tell us what is going on with him."

About 4.00pm that afternoon, Bridger and Kristen had been relaxing with a  cup of coffee in the living room when a very

bleary eyed Lucas walked down the stairs.  His hair was tousled and he was still rubbing the tiredness out of his eyes.

"Hey sleepyhead, how are you feeling?" Bridger asked in a gentle voice.

"Still tired, but not as bad as before" Lucas admitted as he sat down on the chair across the room from Bridger.  He could

feel two sets of eyes on him looking him up and down and scrutinizing every move he made to see if what he was saying

was true.

"My chest still hurts a lot" he said and put his hand to the area to try and rub some of the tightness away as proof.

"I have booked you into see a doctor at the hospital tomorrow Lucas" Kristen now said.  "Doctor Kavanagh set it up after

I told him about you not feeling much better.  He says it warrants some more investigation and has set up some tests

in the morning to try and help you."

"Okay" Lucas replied, not really paying attention to what was being said to him.  It was at this point that Bridger and

Kristen really did believe him about feeling poorly.  They had never known Lucas to be so co-operative about seeing

someone such as a doctor.  Events from his past had made them a very painful memory for him and when he as well,

he did his best to try and avoid any medical treatment.

The next morning, Lucas ate a sparse breakfast before they left for the hospital.  He felt a little more awake than he had

last night, but his chest was still very tight.

About 10.00am all three, Bridger, Lucas and Kristen got into the car and drove to the catch the ferry to the mainland.

The journey from the island to the mainland took about 20 minutes.  Lucas spent the trip leaning on the railing, looking

out over the sea.  The breeze felt good on his face and watching the continual motion of the waves made him forget

all about his physical problems.  

As they got into the cab at the port to go to the hospital, Lucas sat in the middle between Bridge and Kristen.  Lucas

wasn't very talkative to either of them but the thing that worried Kristen most about the teenager was the sound of his

breathing.  She could literally hear him take in each breath and exhale it sharply.  It was if the boy was constantly out of

breath.  It alarmed her and she began to form some ideas about what was making Lucas so tired.  She decided to leave

the full diagnosis to the specialist but she made a mental note to talk to the doctors about what she was hearing coming

from the young man's chest.

Bridger got out of the cab and waited until Lucas was a little ahead of both of them before confronting Kristen about 

what she was thinking about.  He had seen the concentration on her face all the way in the cab and knew it had something

to do with Lucas's condition. 

"Not now" she quickly said as Lucas stopped and turned around, wondering why his was walking in alone all of a sudden.

"I'll tell you later" she added.

"Come on you two" Lucas admonished the pair of them.  "If I have to go in, so do you" he said as he grumbled all the way

into the hospital reception area.  Truth was he hated hospitals.  It was no secret to the SeaQuest crew that he had spent

an increasing amount of time in them as a child due to his father's abuse.  But walking in here today, he almost felt like he

was going to the place that could tell what was wrong with him.

Kristen now walked in front of both Lucas and Bridger and approached the reception nurse at the desk "Good Morning,"

she greeted the nurse "My name is Doctor Westphalen, I have a patient here ready to see Doctor Kavanagh".

"One moment please" the woman answered as she checked the appointments on her computer.

"Yes I have that appointment, go upstairs to the medical ward to Room 232" she replied as she glanced at the other  two

people with the doctor.  "I'm afraid you will have to use the stairs this morning.  The elevator is having some routine

maintenance done on it" she added.

"Thank you" Kristen said and now led her party towards the staircase.  "Looks like we get some exercise" she commented

as she gazed at the two flights of steps they had to climb to the next floor.  

The stairs didn't seem to take long and soon they were opening the door to the medical ward.  Kristen stepped into the corridor

and started looking for Room 232.  Bridger had reached the ward as well and noted that Lucas still had a couple of steps to

go.  Somehow the boy had lagged behind them after the first flight of steps.  

Kristen was a little alarmed when Lucas did reach the ward however.  She could hear the boy's harsh sounding breathing and

the faint sheen of sweat on his face.  He looked as though he had just run up about 50 flights of steps rather than slowly walked

up a few.

"Are you okay Lucas?" she said as she gasped his arms and looked intently at his face.

"Yeah……….. just…….just a little out of breath" he said as he tried to slow down and get his breath back.  "Looks like

I need some exercise" he joked but than resumed trying to calm himself down.  His pulse was racing and he felt incredibly hot

all of a sudden.

Kristen let him go but threw a worried glance towards Bridger who was looking at Lucas himself.  Bridger was no doctor but

could also hear the raspy sound of his breathing.  What did it all mean?   

Kristen now made a determined effort to find the right room a little more quickly and triumphantly announced that she had

found the right door.  Bridger and Lucas now walked in her, Lucas putting his hands deep into his pockets, trying to hide his

nervousness.  

"Doctor Westphalen" said Doctor John Kavanagh as they walked in.  He shook her hand and that of Bridger's before looking

at Lucas and raising an eyebrow at the boy's pale features.  He looked back at Kristen with a questioning glance but she

quickly shook her head, signalling that now wasn't the right time.  They would talk more when Lucas was out of earshot.

"Lucas would you like a drink or anything before we start?" Kavanagh now asked.

"No" came the reply.

"Okay now Lucas, I am just going to conduct some routine tests on you.  Nothing too drastic. Just poke and prod you

a little, take your blood pressure and listen to various parts of your body.  How does all of that sound?" Kavanagh said,

trying to gain the teenager's confidence.

"Tiring" Lucas said in an uninterested voice, immediately diverting his gaze from the people in the room, hiding his 

apprehension. 

"Lucas, you can sit there for a minute or so.  I am just going to wheel this blood pressure and check on your pulse." 

Kavanagh explained.  "Now roll up your sleeve please."

Lucas rolled his eyes in disapproval for a minute but then complied, knowing that he wasn't going to get out of here 

until they all these so-called tests.    He now watched as the doctor tightened the Velcro sleeve on his arm and read

the mercury based scale.   Before he took the sleeve off Lucas's arm, the doctor now placed the listening part of a

stethoscope on the inside of the boy's wrist and now counted time with his watch and his ears.  Lucas saw a frown

start to appear on the doctor's face at the end of that test.

"All done here Lucas, but now I need you to come with me and talk to a few of my doctor friends.  They are the ones

going to do some of the other tests" Kavanagh explained.   He could see the hesitation in the young man's expression.

"Come on honey" Kristen said taking him gently but firmly by the upper arm and leading him from one doctor's office

to the next.   Bridger followed behind without saying too much at all.  He was intent on listening to whatever the doctor's

were saying and keeping an eye on the reluctant teenager's demeanour .  

For the next hour or so Lucas went from one doctor to the other, one test to the next.  Obediently complying with their

requests but not liking it any better.  One test saw his face turn a bright shade of scarlet as he was required to blow one

long continuous breath into a small hollow tube.  He was told that this test measured how much air was in his lungs.

A normal young adult of Lucas's age was supposed to obtain a reading about 400.   Both Lucas and everybody in the

room grew concerned when the marker on the tube only reached 150.

They took blood and other body samples from him and told him to take a deep breath in and let it out slowly as they

listened to his lungs, front and back with the stethoscope again.   

He did various other tests like running on the spot for a short period of time and measuring his breathing levels again, then

riding a stationary bike for a time and then repeating the breathing checks.  He ran on a treadmill for what seemed like forever,

until his legs hurt from the exertion.  

The clock chimed 1pm when all of the rigorous tests finally came to an end and they went back to Doctor Kavanagh's office

to listen to the findings.

Lucas sat on the long couch just inside the office door and sprawled himself out on it, closing his eyes and seemingly trying

to block out all of the noise around him.

Bridger and Kristen looked at him for a few minutes as did Doctor Kavanagh, trying to gauge how he was really going after

such a busy morning of tests.  None of them seemed to be very happy with what they could see.  Lucas's skin colouring was

rather pale, though some of that could be caused by the air-conditioning in the building and partly due to the running he had

just been doing a short time ago.

"Nathan, Kristen" John Kavanagh started  "I don't want to sound like a party pooper, but I see some very worrying symptoms

in Lucas that I can't ignore." 

"I saw some of them too John, but tell me truly what you think they all mean?" Kristen asked in reply.

"Now don't go flying off the handle because we have no way of knowing if it is permanent or not at the moment.  Without

re-going over the data and test results again, most of the doctor's we just spoke to confirm that Lucas has developed the 

condition commonly known as Asthma.  At this early stage we have no real data to go on about how long he might have it, 

but all the signs are there to indicate that his breathing is very laboured at times.  Particularly when he has been doing some

physical exercise.  You saw how his breathing sounded after the running and treadmill."

"What can we do to help him?" Nathan now asked with fear for Lucas in his voice.  They all glanced back over towards the 

teenager and noted that it appeared he had fallen asleep.  His head was leaning against the armrest of the couch and his whole

body looked totally relaxed for the first time that morning.  Soft wheezes could be heard escaping his lips at various intervals.

"Well, that's probably the good part about this whole thing" John Kavanagh explained.  "Thanks to modern medicine, there

are a lot of very good medicines and equipment on the market to help him if he should suffer an attack."

"And how will we know when he has an attack?" Nathan asked a little frustration creeping into his voice.  He wasn't oblivious

to the condition.  He had crew members with Asthma before, had even seen some of them struggle for their breath while trying

to find their medication.  Is that what Lucas had to look forward, turning blue in the face and struggling to draw a breath into

his lungs while fumbling around in his pocket for his medication spray?

"Oh believe me Captain, both you and he will know when he has an attack." Kavanagh replied.  "The first time it happens, and

probably for the first few attacks, it is going to be very scary for him when he has an attack.  It normally is for any asthmatic, but

with the right education and medication, people can be taught to monitor their own conditions and be shown what to do when

they feel an attack coming on."

"What should we do first?" Kristen asked now concerned herself about what this new condition meant for Lucas.

"Well, I have some video tapes and education pamphlets for you to take home.  I think you will need them to explain to Lucas

how he is going to manage his condition.  I will also give you the names of a nebulizer and other equipment that you may wish

to consider purchasing over the next couple of weeks and keep on hand.   I will give you Kristen, the names of the medications

that you can purchase by prescription at the chemist.  Probably just an inhaler spray to begin with and some Ventolin.  The

Ventolin will help to ease his noisy breathing and open up the restricted airways.  The spray can be used when he feels short

of breath and isn't anywhere near his other medication."

"Lucas will need to understand that he has to make some lifestyle changes as well until this condition disappears altogether or

becomes more manageable." Kavanagh explained.

"What sort of changes?" Nathan now asked with honest curiosity.   He knew that he and Kristen would have to be the most

vigilant of the trio.   If they waited until Lucas told them that he wasn't feeling well, it could be too late for any of the medication

to wait.  Lucas had a notorious reputation for keeping his sickness and suffering to himself .

"Well, although he will still need to be active, he will also need to kerb some of the physical exercise at times when he feels that

he is getting short of breath.  Avoiding over exerting himself or exercising for prolonged periods of time.  If he starts to feel  tired,

then he needs to recognize that his body is trying to tell him something.   Also he needs to keep his inhaler with him at all times.

Attacks can come in many different types and severity.   He needs to know how to use the inhaler to help him breath easier

and he needs to seek medical help when he does have severe attacks."

"I know this is a lot to take in all at once and it is going to be a bigger change for Lucas to cope with" Kavanagh started to finish

off.  "But the most positive step he can take towards his own health and well-being is prevention.  If he recognizes his body's

signs that he is tired and needs to rest, then he should avoid severe attacks and the medication should fill in whenever he is feeling

short of breath.  The biggest mistake I see kids and adults make when having an attack is that they fight against their own body.

They feel the tightness in their chests and then tense up in panic and fear which restricts the airways and blood vessels even more.

If he has a attack, help him to keep calm, I know he will be scared, but if you help him to breath through it and take deep, long and

even breaths, his body won't try and fight him back.  The attack won't be as severe and won't last as long.

"I will give you my business card.  If you feel the need to call and discuss anything, or if Lucas has questions of his own, please

don't hesitate to call.    I will be available day or night, especially if it becomes an emergency and he is having a genuine attack."

"I will make an appointment for Lucas to come back in two weeks and see how he is going.  Hopefully, this is only temporary due 

to the chest infection.  Hopefully within a couple of months it will have cleared up altogether.   His body was pushed to the limit

there on that submarine for a few days and is just reacting to those pressures.  Try not to worry to much" Kavanagh said as he 

got up from his chair.

"Come on sleepy head" Nathan said as he roused Lucas from the couch and helped him to stand on his own two feet.  The less

than awake teenager could only give a sheepish grin in return for having fallen asleep through the whole discussion.  "Kristen

can explain it all when you get home" he said with a sly grin as he looked back at Kristen.   Kristen tried to return her best annoyed

look for being put on the spot but ended up giving a grin of her own after a few seconds and helped Nathan direct the still

disorientated Lucas towards the corridor.

"Thank you John, we will be in touch" Kristen said as she exited the door behind Lucas.

"Bye Lucas" Kavanagh sung out after the teenager and got a half raised hand in response.  He lost the smile though one the people

had left, realising what an uphill battle they all might be facing over the next couple of weeks.  He hoped he was right in his diagnosis

and the condition was indeed only temporary.  Listening to the boy's restricted lungs though for most of the morning, didn't give

him much encouragement.  While children often grew out of Asthma about the time they were 17 or 18.  But in Lucas's case, he was

only just developing the symptoms at that age.   He didn't have much faith in the boy's body being able to outgrow the condition.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

SORRY GUYS – YOU COULD HAVE BEEN READING THIS OVER TWO WEEKS AGO BUT I HAVE BEEN VERY SICK FOR THE

LAST FORTNIGHT.   THIS STORY WILL TAKE PLACE AFTER THE FIRST AND I WILL USE THE IDEA I WAS GOING TO USE

AT THE END OF THE FIRST.  MURRAY WON'T MAKE AN APPEARANCE FOR QUITE A WHILE.

MOST OF THE ASTHMA STUFF COMES FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.  I AM THE ONLY FAMILY MEMBER OF FIVE

WHO DOESN'T HAVE THE CONDITION, SO MY HOUSEHOLD WAS ALWAYS FILLED WITH WHEEZY BREATHING.

FOUR YEARS AGO, THE CONDITION CLAIMED MY FATHER AND THEN THREE WEEKS AFTER HE DIED MY VERY 

PREMATURE AND NEW BORN SON WAS PLACED ON MY CHEST IN THE DELIVERY ROOM, ONLY TO HEAR THE SAME

NOISES AND GROAN AS I KNEW WHAT WAS TO COME.   NEEDLESS TO SAY MY BOY WHO IS NOW ALMOST FOUR

HAD HIS FIRST ATTACK ABOUT FIVE DAYS AGOAND IT WAS VERY SCARY FOR HIM.

SOME OF THE FUTURE SCENES HAVE COME FROM THE MOVIE "SIDEKICKS"  WHERE JONATHAN BRANDIS PLAYED

AN ASTHMATIC.  BUT MOST OF THE OTHER SCENES ARE JUST MADE UP IN MY OWN MIND.

ENJOY – LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.


	2. CHAPTER 2

**BREATHE**

Bridger and Kristen decided to leave the in depth discussion with Lucas about his condition until after they got back to the

island.

On the ferry trip back, Lucas remained mostly subdued.  He was tired and had started to fall asleep on a few occasions whilst

resting on one of the chairs towards the back of the vessel.  He knew that his Dad and the doctors had been talking about the 

results of the tests he had just taken.  He also was aware that all were worried about how poorly he had performed in some of the

breathing exercises.

He felt himself rubbing absentmindedly at his chest area while his mind went back over the day's events.  The tiredness made

him feel frustrated.  He just wanted to be left alone and ignore the whole world at the moment.

When the trio finally arrived home, despite his tiredness and the requests from Kristen and Bridger that he should rest before

they had any more discussions, Lucas made it perfectly clear that he wanted to find out then and there what was wrong with

him and what it would mean for him in the future.

"Are you sure you don't want to rest?" Kristen said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.  Her concern for his health was

clearly written on her face but it only served to scare Lucas more about what was wrong with him.

"No, I am not sure.  I am tired.  But I also need to know what is wrong with me Kristen" he said, the frustration now showing

through his words.  "I need to know why my chest hurts like hell all the time, and why I can't seem to stand on my own two

feet for more than a few hours without being so darned tired it's not funny."

Lucas now sat down on the couch in the living room.  Kristen and Bridger took their own seats in the two single recliner

chairs in the room.

"Lucas I know you are hurting at the moment" Kristen said with a very gently voice.  This wasn't going to be the easiest

thing to explain to the teenager.  "What the doctor's were discussing after your tests, is the possibility of you developing

the condition of Asthma."  She left it at that for the moment, trying to gauge the young man's reaction to her statement.

For the most part, Lucas just sat there for a few minutes, trying to take in what he had just heard.  Someone in his brain was

searching under the name of Asthma and trying to work out what his brain had collected about such a condition over the

years.   The only information that was coming back to him was that someone with Asthma usually couldn't breathe properly.

Somewhere also in the back of his mind he could remember seeing kids at school with Asthma sucking on strange looking

inhalers and wheezing until they were red in the face.

"So what does that mean for me?" Lucas asked in a barely audible voice.  He kept telling himself that it couldn't possibly

be as bad as all that.  Could it?

"It means that you need to take some medication on a daily basis and moderate your lifestyle so that it is more relaxed.

"You need to learn how to listen to your body and know what it is telling you." Kristen explained.

"Asthma is a condition of the airways.  When you do too much and don't recognize the signs when your body needs

rest, sometimes the airways become inflamed and restricted.  They become tight like your chest has been today and over

the last few days.  And they start to give you the feeling that you can't breath properly" she continued to explain.

Bridger now moved beside Lucas and put a comforting arm around the teenager's slim shoulders.  He could see that the

boy was wrestling with the whole idea that he was being told.  "It just means that you need to take care of yourself

Lucas.  The doctor's seem to think that the medication they have prescribed will help ease the pain and discomfort you are 

experiencing now.  Plenty of rest should help overcome the tiredness that you have been feeling lately."

"So what about in the future?  Am I stuck with this death sentence for the rest of my life?" Lucas asked in an uninterested

tone of voice.  All this talk about taking care of himself, resting more and having to take daily medication was beginning

to make him feel like an invalid.

"Most children grow out of Asthma by the time they are your age.  Doctor Kavanagh is convinced that your condition

is only temporary due to the chest infection that you developed on the SeaQuest." Kristen answered.  "He has given me

some other equipment and other ideas about treatment that we can use later if and when you have an attack……….."

"An attack?" Lucas asked suddenly looking up with curiosity.  "What is an attack?"

Kristen looked at Bridger and had to think for a moment of how to come up with an explanation that would answer Lucas's

question without scaring the hell out of him.

"An attack happens when you over exert yourself or your lungs become prone to an infection which they cannot fight

on their own without help.  When you don't listen to your body and those airways become very inflamed and restricted.

You will feel very short of breath and your chest will feel very tight."

"There is an inhaler that you can use at those times that will help to open up the airways very quickly.  I will show you how

to use the inhaler after you rest a while.  From now on you will have to carry one with you everywhere you so and learn

how to use it."

"Why can't I just have a normal life?" Lucas now said in dejection.

"Lucas, you are not alone.  We promise to be there for you whenever you need us.  Hopefully this condition will fix itself

within a short space of time.  If it doesn't, we will cope anyway.  Lots of people have Asthma and lead a very normal, active

and productive lifestyle.  It doesn't mean that you are confined to the house for the rest of your life.  It just means that you

have to make some adjustments for the time being and learn how to cope with an attack if and when it happens."

"I am not going to lie to you Lucas" Bridger now said, "This scares us as much as it does you, but we will work through

this together.  You won't have to face this alone.  I just ask that you allow your body to heal and take it easy for a couple

of weeks with the medication and see how you feel.  Hopefully you will feel a whole lot better and never know you have

Asthma."

"I feel a little scared" Lucas admitted for the first time.  This burden sounded like a heavy one to bear and he didn't know

if he was ready for the challenge ahead.

"Can this just be between us at the moment" Lucas now asked.  "I mean not tell the rest of the crew until we really have

to.  I don't want them treating me like a baby anymore than they do now."

"Sure Lucas" Kristen said.  "We don't have to tell anybody unless you want to.  Are you sure though that you would

rather they didn't know?"

"I need to get used to this myself first" Lucas replied.  "I wouldn't be able to deal with everybody looking over my shoulder

all the time and making sure that I was feeling okay."

By the time they had finished their discussions Lucas's tiredness had become more than obvious to both Kristen and

Nathan.  His eyelid kept drooping closed and his head nodded forward briefly, until he caught himself and sat up straight 

again.

"Come on junior, time for a little rest. We can talk some more after dinner tonight and watch some of those educational

videos that we were given." Nathan now said, trying his best to cheer the sullen teenager up.

The fact that Lucas didn't protest about having an afternoon nap made Kristen and Nathan worry even more about Lucas's

state of health. When he was well, the suggestion of a nap in the middle of the afternoon would have brought wails of 

laughter from the boy as well as a few well intended jokes.

"You need to start taking your new medication from today Lucas" Kristen reminded him.  "You go and get yourself comfortable

upstairs and I will bring it up to you with some water to wash it down."

Lucas nodded his head in agreement and slowly pulled himself into a standing position.  He briefly looked back at the Captain

and Kristen with a wan smile on his face and then headed up the stairs with his shoulders sagging a little.

Lucas sat on the bed and started to take his shoes off while trying to figure out why life had to be so darned complicated.

He muttered his way through the whole process and angrily threw the shoes across the other side of the room.   He didn't

even have the energy at the moment to lift his legs onto the bed.  He laid back across the bed and fell asleep without even

realising it.

This is how Bridger and Kristen found him a few minutes later when Kristen came up to give him his medication.  She smiled

slightly at Lucas's unusual sleeping position.  She decided that the medication could wait until he woke.  She wrote a quick

note and left it on the bedside table with instructions for the teenager when he woke.  

Bridger went about trying to move Lucas's legs onto the bed and stretch him out along the bed.   Lucas didn't even budge at the movements.  There was a soft sigh that escaped his lips as Bridger gently laid his head on the pillow.  He decided the room 

was warm enough not to need any further coverings for the moment.

"We need to cheer him up" Kristen said in a whisper as the two of them closed the door softly on their way out.

"I think I have just the idea too" Bridger said with a grin.  "I need to go back to the boat for a while and check with Jonathan

how things are progressing with the repairs.   I will explain everything when I get back."

"You know he's got to take it relatively slow, nothing strenuous you heard them say" Kristen reminded him with her forehead

turned down in a frown.  Not that she didn't think Nathan had Lucas's best interests at heart, but she wondered what his

idea was.

Bridger just gave a quick wave in acknowledgement as he went out the front door.  He secretly hoped his idea would work

as well as he hoped.

********************************************************************************************

About 4.00 in the afternoon, Lucas started to stir from his sleep.  He took a few minutes to wake fully and get his bearings.

He had been asleep for about 2 hours and it had made him feel a little better he had to admit.  His body didn't wake up to

the aches that he had been having over the last week or so.  He even took his leisure at a long cat-like stretch and was

glad to report no significant muscles aches or pain.   

Lucas looked over at the bedside table and noticed the glass of water and a clear liquid in a medicine glass next to it.

He picked up the note that Kristen had written:   _Yes__ you have to drink it all.   2ml four times a day.  Don't grumble_

_just__ drink it.  It doesn't taste that bad._

Lucas had to laugh slightly.  He wondered how Kristen had come to know his moods so well within only a very short

space of time.  He hadn't been very sick around her before so the fact that she knew he hated to take any medicine

made him think how lucky he was to have someone who cared about him.  He had two people actually and he wouldn't

change any of it for the world.

Lucas drank the medicine as he was told and screwed his face up as it slid awkwardly down his throat.  He reminded himself

that he would need to talk to Kristen about how awfully it really was.  Maybe they could add a flavouring to mask the

bitter taste.  He held up the empty medicine glass and thought for a moment.  Is this what he had to look forward to every

day for the rest of his life:  a daily dose of medicine.  Someone always reminding him to take something and watch what

he was doing.  

Lucas grabbed the empty glasses and headed with them down the stairs towards the kitchen.  Kristen was sitting on the

couch reading a romance novel.  The teenager looked around but couldn't see the Captain anywhere nearby.  

"Where's the Captain?" Lucas asked simply.

"Hello sleepyhead, do you feel any better.  Good to see you took my advice and drank your medicine like a good boy."

she joked with him.

"The alternative of having you nag me constantly every minute for the rest of the day wasn't very appealing" Lucas said

in reply with a smile on his face.

"Nathan went to see how Commander Ford is doing with the repairs.  He didn't say how long he was going to be.  Said he

would have something to show you when he got back." 

"That's sounds suspicious" Lucas remarked.

"That's what I said to him" Kristen admitted. "While you are waiting for him to come back, we can watch some of those

educational videos if you like."

Lucas sank onto the couch with an over exaggerated groan but knew that he didn't have a legitimate excuse to get out of

it.  May as well get it over with he told himself.

"Whatever" he said out loud, his mood immediately dropping a little again as he thought about his fate until Bridger got back.

After what seemed like an eternity of watching mindless people on the T.V. but was more like only half an hour, Lucas was

relieved to see Bridger walk through the door.  He was carrying a large cardboard box as he came through the doorway.

Lucas got up from the chair to help open the door and was about to close it when his friend Ben Krieg walked up onto the

porch carrying another similar sized box.

"Thanks Lucas" Ben said cheerily as he came in and followed the Captain.  To Lucas's surprise the Captain and Ben didn't

stop to explain their large packages, they just went right on in and up the stairs towards Lucas's room.  Kristen and Lucas

followed after the pair with confused looks on their faces.

"What are they for" Lucas asked casually, with his hands in his pockets.  He needed to bury them deeply for fear of having

them wander towards his tight chest and start rubbing at it before he caught himself.  His chest had started to become

tight again only in the last half an hour or so since they started watching the videos. 

Lucas couldn't tell if it was due to watching all of the people on the videos having attacks and scarcely able to breathe.  

He was scared something like that was going to happen to him without warning and there would be nobody around to help

him and he wouldn't remember what to do.  The last thing he needed was for Kristen or the Captain to catch him rubbing at 

his chest area and suspecting that he was hurting again.  He was due for some more medicine after dinner time.  Hopefully 

that would help ease the tightness overnight and he would be feeling okay by morning again.

"I thought you could use something to do while you got your strength back Lucas, so I went and asked Jonathan what

they needed help with the most on board the ship.  You can guess what his answer was." Bridger informed him as he unwrapped

the two boxed and displayed two brand new lap top computers and other hardware.

Lucas eyes opened wide like it was Christmas morning.  This was the first true smile everyone had seen on him in days.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked as he sat down in front of the consoles and started putting them together.  The

instruction sheets were beside him but he didn't even look at them once.  He knew how these things works.  Computers were

his life.

"Jonathan says that they are having major problems with the computers due to the temperature drop while we were adrift"

Bridger now explained.  "There are a lot of other people who could probably do the job, but we knew we needed an expert

who could do it quicker.  Know of anybody who might be interested in the position?" 

"Oh boy you really mean it.  I have open slather on the ship's computer system.  You want me to rebuild it to what it was 

before.  That is so cool.  Of course I want the job." Lucas said excitedly.

Kristen couldn't help but smile at the boy's enthusiasm.  Nathan really knew how to get inside the boy and cheer him up.

"Nathan, don't forget, I don't want him spending all of his time at these computers.  I know the ship needs the work done,

but Lucas cannot get over excited at the moment and he still needs plenty of rest if he wants me to give the okay when

shore leave is finished." Kristen reminded them all sternly but not wanting to dampen the boy's excitement.

"Don't worry Kristen, I will take care of myself I promise.   I can't thank you enough  Captain.  At least now I won't be 

 cooped up here like a prisoner.  This is going to be great." Lucas replied.

"Let's leave the boy genius to his work shall we?" Bridger said, ushering the others outside and leaving Lucas alone

to play with his new toys.

"You did very good Captain Bridger" Ben Krieg said once they were out of earshot.  "It's the happiest I have seen him

in weeks."

Kristen and Bridger looked at each other and felt a little guilty that they couldn't let Ben in on Lucas's new secret.

Bridger had told everyone back at the boat that Lucas was still resting as a result of the recent chest infection he had

developed which was not totally a lie.  He had just left out the part about the Asthma, hoping that nobody would be any

the wiser for the time being until Lucas decided to tell them himself.

Ben had enjoyed a leisurely cup of coffee with the Captain and Kristen before excusing himself and telling them that he

was needed to complete his duties back on the boat.  The schedule was getting tighter and tighter to finish the repairs

in time before they set off again and that was also why Lucas was given the task of the computer programming.  He would

have it done in half the time of anybody else aboard and the crew could trust that it wouldn't break down the minute

they were back out on the open ocean.

*******************************************************************************************

For the rest of the evening Lucas played with his new toys and started to prepare for completing the computer systems

for the boat that the Captain requested.

He found himself falling into a regular pattern of taking his medication as needed and taking an hour nap after lunch

each afternoon to keep Kristen from worrying too much about him.

After he woke from his afternoon sleep the next afternoon though, Lucas knew that things were far from being right.

His chest had been tight for a couple of days now and no matter how much he persisted in taking his medicine on time

every day, the tightness didn't seem to dissipate at all.  On the contrary it seemed to be getting worse.

He felt scared about running straight to Kristen and telling her about how tight his chest was and how his lungs seemed

to be burning at the moment as he breathed.  He decided to give himself a break from the computers for an hour or so

and see if a walk in the fresh air outside would help him.

Kristen was sitting on the couch again taking her normal time out every day for some reading and relaxation.  She heard

him on the stairway on his way down to the front door.  Luckily for him her glance and smile at him  was brief as she

returned to her reading.  She didn't detect the slightest thing wrong in him.  

If she had taken a little closer look she might have noticed the paler colour in his cheeks and hear the slight shortness 

of breath that had been plaguing him since he awoke.    Lucas had to choke back the tickling in his throat that made him

want to cough.  He would take that short walk and then see how he felt.  If he didn't feel much better then he could be

a little more honest with Kristen and she what she could do to help him.  He didn't want to worry her unnecessarily.  He 

was told he might feel shortness of breath at times.  Maybe the tightness in his chest was just something he would have

to get used to occasionally.

"Taking a break Lucas" Kristen asked as she looked up from her book a second time to see him opening the front door.

"Yeah, need to get out for a minute and stretch my legs a little. Getting a little stiff from sitting down too long.  Just going

to take a walk along the jetty.  Won't be long." Lucas replied.

"Be careful dear" Kristen now said.  She didn't want to feel like she was bearing down on him all the time.  He was a teenager

and needed a little space to himself for a while. 

"I will" he answered and closed the door behind him.  He shivered a little and had not known about the slight change in

weather that blew in from the sea and had cooled the temperature down more than normal.  He thought for a minute about

going back inside to grab a jacket, but then told himself that he was only going to walk along the jetty.  He would be alright

for a few minutes.

Nathan had been seeing to the repairs on the SeaQuest again and saw Lucas's figure standing out on the jetty as he pulled

up in front of the house.  The kid seemed alright as he played and laughed with Darwin.  Bridger decided to let the two of

them share some much needed quality time with each other before intruding.

"Hi honey" Nathan greeted Kristen as he walked into the house.  "I see our young charge is getting some fresh air."

"Yes he only just went out there.  Said he needed to stretch his legs.   Said he was getting stiff from sitting too long." Kristen

answered.

"Now that's a first" Nathan said jokingly.  Normally Lucas had to be threatened with all sorts of things to get him away from

his computer screens.

"What do you feel like for dinner tonight?" Nathan asked casually as he sat down on the sofa beside Kristen.

"I don't know really.  Let's wait for Lucas to come in and decide." Kristen replied.

"If you are going to do that it will probably be pizza" Nathan remarked, knowing all too well how his son's mind worked

when it came to feeding his stomach.

Back on the jetty, Lucas had been relaxing and talking to Darwin.   Darwin had tried to splash him a few times to get him

a little more involved, but Lucas's thoughts were still on the tightness in his chest that had now started to turn into a 

distinct pain.  He knew he was going to have to say something to Kristen when he went back inside.

He stood up but was suddenly buffeted by the gusty cool winds from the waves.  He shivered at the coolness that touched

his skin and knew he shouldn't have been out in such conditions with his chest feeling so bad.  He started to walk back

to the house.  It was only a short distance, no more than 50 metres or so.   

The walk for Lucas however became an effort after about the first 10 steps at the pain in his chest decided to become more

sharper.   He gasped as he felt the jabs of pain stabbing at him.  He rubbed at his chest vigorously trying to ease the hurting

and get his lungs breathing probably again.  But with each stab of pain his mind was becoming more alarmed and his chest

was getting tighter still.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Lucas's mind told him that he was having an Asthma attack.     His breaths were now

in short raspy gasps and the pain in his chest was becoming worse.   He had tried to call out to Kristen on two occasions,

but gave up when only a hoarse whisper escaped his lips.  The words drifted off on the gusty wind away from the intended

target.

Lucas finally managed to make it to the front porch.  He was holding onto the hand rail of the stairs just to hold him upright.

The other hand was clasped tightly about his chest as he tried to deal with the pain that was not abating.  

Lucas tried to take another step forward towards the front door, but found his strength waning as a result of a lack of oxygen

to his tired muscles.  The blood was not circulating very well in his body and what blood was moving around felt as though

it was going straight to his head causing the giddiness he had just begun to battle.

Without warning Lucas found himself stumbling to his knees, making a thud on the porch decking.  He once again tried to

call out for help.  His voice was still no more than a whisper.

Nathan inside had turned his head at the sound he heard on the porch.  He waited a few seconds to see if it happened again.

It didn't but his mind told him to go to the door an investigate.

"Did you hear that?" Bridger asked Kristen as he made his way to the door and opened it.

"Hear what?" Kristen asked, putting her book aside and watching his movements at the door.  She had failed to hear the noise

that Nathan.

Nathan opened the door and almost couldn't find the words to say when he saw a very pale and ill looking Lucas kneeling

on the porch.  His hair was hanging in his eyes and Nathan could see one hand wrapped protectively around his chest.  He

knew something was desperately wrong.

"KRISTEN" Nathan yelled and then barrelled out the door and knelt in front of the trembling teenager trying to help him.

Kristen had moved as quickly as she could at Nathan's cry of anguish.  She was just in time to see Lucas kneeling on the

floor and clutching at his chest in pain.  He lifted his head and looked at her with obvious hurt in his eyes.

"Hurts real bad" he whispered and his head then went towards his chest as he again struggled to gain the next breath.

Nathan grabbed a hold of Lucas to try and help him stand but he found the boy's legs to be shaking.  He didn't know if

it was from fear of what was happening to him or from the pain he was feeling or a combination of both.

"Help me please" Lucas begged and then lost his battle to stand upright.  He found Bridger and Kristen half walking,

half carrying him into the living room.   He barely felt himself being lifted onto the couch.

Kristen left Lucas in Nathan's hands for a moment as she raced upstairs to his bedroom and grabbed the equipment to 

help him.  She grabbed the nebuliser and oxygen mask, two pillows from the bed and a heavy blanket.  She had noted

the coldness of the boy's skin as they brought him into the house.

This was the event that they had all been dreading but now was happening frighteningly right before their very eyes.

THAT'S IT FOR A WHILE GUYS – SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE BUT I ONLY HAD SURGERY ON MONDAY

AND THE DRUG CLOUD IS ONLY BEGINNING TO LIFT.  HOPE YOU ARE LIKING IT SO FAR.   WILL UPDATE THE

OTHERS AS SOON AS I CAN.

JULES


	3. CHAPTER 3

**BREATHE**

Nathan felt helpless as he watched Lucas's struggle to do the most basic of tasks:  _breathe.  Lucas was looking back_

at Bridger with fear in his eyes.   

Once again Lucas said the words that almost broke Bridger's heart in two:  "Help me please".

Nathan was trying to massage the teenager's tight shoulders and talking over and over to him in a soft and soothing

voice, trying to get him to calm down to see if this would help alleviate some of the pain he was feeling in his chest.

"Try and breathe slowly Lucas" Nathan now instructed.

Lucas seemed to hear his words for a few seconds as he attempted to lay back against the arm rest of the couch and

try and wait out the pain while they both waited anxiously for Kristen to return.

The attempt was short lived though as he bent forward again, clutching at his chest again and bringing his knees up

as another wave of pain gripped his lungs.  He was trying to take another breath inwards but the drawing action only

seemed to make the burning sensation more extreme.  By the time the pain had begun to ease a little, Lucas collapsed

back against the arm rest of the chair, his breathing terribly short and raspy.

Kristen arrived back as quickly as she could and could see the tension in both Lucas and Nathan.  She told Nathan

to move behind the arm rest so he could still talking calmingly to the teenager but allow her to do what she had to do.

Kristen placed some plumped up pillows behind Lucas's back, trying to lift him a little high on the chair and prop him

up to help with the breathing.  He placed the heavy blanket over him to try and stop some of the tremors that were still

present.  

Lucas and Bridger watched intently as she now used a hypodermic syringe to inject some of the Ventolin syrup into

a small receptacle that was attached to the nebuliser machine.  Now Kristen added an oxygen mask to the top of the 

tubing and then started to bring the clear oxygen mask down over Lucas's pale face.

At first Lucas didn't think he would have a problem with the mask, but as it got closer and closer over his face and Kristen

started to tighten the elastic strap at the back, something in the back of Lucas's mind started to make him feel a little

constricted.    His breathing was already short and raspy, but due to his little knowledge of how to use the mask properly,

he was trying to breathe too fast through the mask.

"It's okay Lucas," Kristen said as she explained while she worked.  "This is just to help with your breathing.   You don't

need to be afraid.   You need to slow your breaths down a little and make them longer and slower."

Lucas tried do what Kristen was telling him but the fear in him was a greater force at the moment and seemed to be

controlling what was going on in his body at that time.    He managed to slow the first one or two breaths down but as

soon as the fear began to mount again, the breathing became quicker and more forced.

"Come on Lucas, I know you can do it" Kristen said not trying to chastise the teenager.  She knew he was trying, she

just had to keep talking to him and keep encouraging him.

Lucas was trying, he really was but his body seemed to be fighting him at the moment.  If tried to breath slow, his lungs

did the exact opposite and closed up altogether.   He didn't know how much more energy he had to fight with.  His limbs

were beginning to feel impossibly heavy and he had a difficult time from stopping his eyes drifting closed.

"In, out.  Nice and slow Lucas.  In and now out" Kristen said as she kept the encouragement coming.  She could see the

beginning signs of fatigue in the teenager and she could see his struggles to get enough air into his lungs even with

the help of the Ventolin and the oxygen mask.

It took the best part of half an hour for Lucas's breathing to come back anywhere close to normal.    The mask was still 

something that he found new.   He thought he almost had the routine worked out and then his breathing became more

raspy again and he lost the concentration and the rhythm.  He was becoming frustration with his efforts not to be able

to work out how to do it properly.   He knew little kids half his age managed to breathe through these things and not

complain as much as he felt like doing.  What was wrong with him that he couldn't do it?

The question was left unanswered though as his eyes started to drift closed again.  He forced them open again but the

pull of sleep was too powerful to ignore.  The fresh oxygen had allowed him to be alert for as long as was needed but

now even that couldn't ward off the tiredness that he was feeling.

Kristen and Bridger were still keeping their couch-side vigil over Lucas when they saw his eyes close for another time

in the last minute.  This time though the boy just didn't have the energy to open them again.   They remained closed

and his head lolled to one side, signalling to them that he had fallen asleep.

Both of the sighed a little in relief that Lucas was getting the rest he so desperately needed.  Kristen continued to monitor

his condition for quite a few minutes after he was asleep.  She listened to his chest with her stethoscope and although she

could still here a certain amount of restriction in the airways, his breathing certainly sounded a lot quieter than it had

only half an hour ago.   

"How long does he need to keep that mask on for?" Nathan now asked as he gently stroked Lucas's forehead as he slept.

"I want to keep it on a little while yet.  Not all night, but maybe another hour or two.  It will another half an hour or so

until all of the Ventolin is used up.  I will recheck his lungs again after that.   The only problem now is going to be how to

move him upstairs without waking him too much." Kristen said as she surveyed the stairs and the sleeping figure on the

couch.

"You hold onto the machine and keep the mask over his face as best you can while I lift him" Nathan suggested.

Kristen nodded her head in agreement and now gathered the small oxygen machine and the length of plastic tubing that

was connected to it and the mask over Lucas's face.  Bridger pulled back the blankets and was grateful to feel that the

boy's body had now gained some warmth from them.  He gently placed one hand under the boy's knees and around 

his slim shoulders and lifted him off the couch.    Due to the level of fatigue, Lucas didn't even look like stirring at the

moment.  He mumbled something incoherently and the mask slipped to the side slightly on his face until Kristen adjusted

it, but other than that he didn't feel the dose of caring that was being dished out to him.

Bridger carried him up the stairs with Kristen following only a short distance behind him still holding on to the length

of tubing.   Once inside Lucas's bedroom, Kristen settled the machine on the bedside table and then left Bridger and

Lucas for a second to grab the pillows and blankets downstairs.

Kristen arranged the pillows on the bed so that Lucas would remain propped up as he slept, allowing his breathing to

improve even more.  Bridger now moved the teenager for a second time and laid him down on the mound of pillows.

The two of them lovingly placed the blankets and quilts back over the sleeping boy and then stood over him for a few

minutes, watching him but not saying very much.

Kristen made sure that the oxygen mask was in the right place and wouldn't be disturbed easily if Lucas moved around

during his slumber.  

"Is he going to be okay?" Nathan now said, finally breaking the silence.

Kristen put a comforting arm around Bridger's shoulders "He's going to be fine" she assured him.  "Although I have to

be honest and admit that I don't know of when I have been so scared for him.   Tomorrow when he has had more time

to come to terms with it we will have to get him to talk about it and let him know that what other things he can do if he

feels an attack coming on."

"Tomorrow I will make him take a few puffs on his inhaler just so he can get used to it and increase the dosage of Ventolin

syrup a little until the tightness in his chest becomes a little looser." Kristen now said.

"Let's go downstairs and order that pizza" Kristen now said light-heartily to him.

Both of them had just sat down and started to eat the pizza after it had been delivered when there was a second knock 

at the door.   They looked at each other with questioning looks before Bridger got up to open the door.

They had been hoping for a rather quiet night after the major drama they had with Lucas earlier.  Kristen had already

checked on the sleeping teenager twice since taking him to his room and found him sleeping peacefully both times.  She

would remove the mask on the next occasion.

"Hi Captain, Doc" came the cheerful greeting of Ben Krieg as Bridger opened the door.

"Ben" Bridger answered, sounding a little surprised to see him.

"Where's Lucas?" the Lieutenant now asked as he glanced around the room and noted the teenager's absence.  He had

spotted the opened pizza box on the kitchen table as he looked around and thought it strange that Lucas wasn't sitting

at the table enjoying it too.

Bridger and Kristen looked at each other briefly and respected Lucas's wishes not to say anything to the crew about his

asthma until he was ready.

"I am afraid he's a little tired at the moment Ben.  He's upstairs sleeping at the moment" Bridger said, feeling incredibly

guilty that he couldn't tell one of Lucas's closest friend's the truth about this condition and the attack he had suffered

only a few hours earlier.

 "I thought he was getting better?" Ben said now with concern is his voice.  He knew about the chest infection Lucas had

developed whilst on the SeaQuest due to the cold but the reports from Kristen and Bridger himself over the last few days

had been that Lucas was almost back to himself and feeling much better.

"He was, I mean he is" Kristen said stumbling over her own words as she too weaved around the real reason for Lucas's

absence.  "What I mean is, yes he has been getting much better over the last few days but with all of this computer

programming he has been doing, he has been pushing himself much too hard as always.  He barely stops those machines

for two minutes unless he is forced to and he has been up all hours of the night trying to get the program finished.  He's

just tired and needs some extra rest" she added, holding her breath inwardly that Ben would at least buy part of what she

was saying.

Ben could feel like he was getting the run around but he couldn't exactly put a finger on why.  The explanation that the 

Captain and the doctor gave sounded like Lucas alright.  The kid never left the computers alone on the boat either.  There

was just something in their over eagerness to explain that made him feel like he was getting the brush off.

"Well okay, but that is why I was here in the first place.  I thought the kid could use some time out in the real world away

from those machines for a while.  I was going to take him to the mainland tomorrow and just do some fun stuff.  Get him

away from the island for the day" Ben now said as he told them of his reason for turning up unannounced.

"That's very thoughtful of you Ben, it really is and normally I would agree with you about getting Lucas out for the day,

but I think he is going to be a little tired tomorrow as well" Kristen now said, trying to explain away why the teenager would

be spending the majority of tomorrow resting as well.  "He didn't get much sleep last night and even if he sleeps the whole

night through I don't think he would have made up the difference.   How about the day after tomorrow?" Kristen now

suggested, not wanting to put Ben's idea totally out of the picture.

"Yeah, okay sure if you think that's okay.   Are you sure you don't want me to ask him anyway?" Ben now asked.

"No that's okay Ben, just let him sleep tonight and he will be feeling much better by tomorrow night I think" Bridger replied.

"Can I at least see him? You know he's like a little brother to me.  I just want to make sure he's alright" Ben now said sheepishly

as he admitted how he felt about the kid.

"Of course you can" Kristen said, noting Ben's worried expression but she momentarily remember about the oxygen mask

on the boy' face.  She couldn't explain that one away very easily.  "But wait right here while I go check on him a minute" 

she said and then scurried up the stairs to remove all remnants of Lucas's current illness.  She hid the nebuliser in the cupboard

and put the medicines on the bedside table in the bathroom cabinet.

She was just heading out of the bathroom when Bridger and Ben were on top of the stairs.  She gave Bridger a sly nod to 

indicate to him that she had hidden everything that would be suspicious looking.

Ben walked into Lucas's room, but made sure he was quiet.  He walked over to the bed and looked down at his young 

sleeping friend.  "Boy he really does looked tired, doesn't he?" he commented, not knowing that there was another reason

for the fatigue lines or the paleness of the teenager's skin.   

"Yeah, he does, so I hope you don't mind that's why we said he should wait a day or so before going out" Bridger said, 

relieved that the little decent seemed to be working at the moment.  He made a mental note to himself to talk to Lucas about

not telling the crew tomorrow when the kid was feeling a little better.  Bridger hated having to tell half-truths like this to

Ben.  As one of Lucas's closest friends, he deserved to know the truth.

"I'll come by the day after tomorrow and see how he is doing." Ben now said as he headed back down the stairs towards

the front door.  "Maybe its not such a good idea to go to the mainland.  I might be able to persuade some of the other guys

to take some time off and spend it on the beach just relaxing for the afternoon.  How does that sound?"

"That sounds great Ben.  I am sure once Lucas has had a chance to rest some he will think it's a great idea too.  See you

then." Bridger said as he said good night to the young Lieutenant.

"I feel like a rat-fink" Kristen said once the door was closed and Ben could no longer dear.  "I wish we could have told him

a little more about Lucas being sick."

"I know, when he feels better tomorrow I am going to have a talk to Lucas about letting the crew know.  There may be a situation

aboard later on when he is in trouble and they will need to know what to do too." Bridger now said as he practiced the 

speech he was going to give Lucas.   

"I'm beat" Kristen said as she rubbed at her eyes tiredly.  Bridger nodded his head in agreement and they both retired somewhat

earlier than usual.   Lucas was still sleeping peacefully and they hoped he would remain so for the remainder of the night.

**************************************************************************************************

The next morning, Bridger and Kristen had both slept late due to their vigil over Lucas.  They hadn't stayed in his room the

whole night but they had been up on several occasions to check on him.

It was well after 9.00am when they finally dragged themselves out of bed and downstairs to the kitchen for some much needed

caffeine.    Lucas was still sound asleep and both of them intended to make sure that he remained that way for as long as he

liked.   They spent the rest of the morning tiptoeing around the house just to keep from waking the teenager.

At about 10.30 they heard the distinct sound of a door opening upstairs to signal that someone was awake.   They both 

fought the urge to get up and remained seated in the living room waiting impatiently for Lucas to appear so they could see

how he was fairing.  They reminded themselves that Lucas probably didn't want them fussing all over him first thing in the

morning.  

Lucas was never a good person when he woke in the mornings.  There had been many occasions aboard the

SeaQuest when crew members had come across the _"Evil Morning Lucas" and swore that the teenager should never be_

allowed out of his room before 12 noon.

Finally they looked up to see the teenager coming slowly down the stairs.  He was still trying to tame his unruly blond

hair and rub the sleep from his eyes.  He kept a tight hand on the banister just in case his legs lost their strength.

"Good morning Lucas." Kristen said a little too cheerfully for his liking.  He knew what line was to come next "How are

you feeling?"

Lucas reached the bottom of the stairs and took the time now to access this for himself.  He had basically just gotten

out of bed and headed for the stairs.  He hadn't stopped to judge how he had faired after the attack yesterday.

Lucas concentrated for a moment, as though he was taking stock of all the various aches and pains, or other symptoms

that he may have had.   He was relieved to note that he didn't feel anywhere near as bad as he suspected he might.

"How do I look?" he asked simply, hoping that his outer appearance wasn't giving away and of his hidden ailments.

"You still look a little pale, but not anywhere near as bad as last night" Kristen answered, deciding to the blatantly honest

with him.

            "My chest is a whole lot better this morning" he said as he rubbed at it, trying to note any traces of pain or tightness

                that he had felt on the jetty outside yesterday.  

"No headaches or dizziness?" Kristen now found herself asking.  It was hard not to go into doctor mode.

"No nothing.  Just feel a little heavy that's all." Lucas said as he wearily sat down in one of the recliners in the living room.

"That's very good.  But don't be fooled into thinking that you are completely over that attack last night" Kristen warned

him.  "I don't want to put a dampened on your spirits as soon as you have gotten up but you will have to be monitored

carefully today to make sure there is no chance of another attack."

"Kay" Lucas mumbled tiredly.  He hadn't really heard what Kristen had said about having another attack.  He just didn't

                feel in a mood to be arguing with her right now.  

            Bridger had occupied himself with getting Lucas something to eat while Kristen looked him over.  He came back with

            a plate of scrambled eggs and a glass of orange juice.

           "Your breakfast is served Sir" Bridger said in a butler like tone as he stood beside Lucas's chair with plate and glass in

             hand.   

"Oh thanks" Lucas replied in an uninterested tone.  He took the plate from Bridger and began forking small mouthfuls of

 the egg into his mouth.    He looked back up and saw the Captain looking back at him as though he was waiting for

something else to be said.

Bridger was a little surprised that he didn't get a better reaction from his performance from the teenager.  Any other day

and Lucas would have two or three jokes lined up ready to fire back at him.   Today he didn't even bat an eyelid.

"Ben came to see you last night Lucas" Bridger now said as he sat in the couch across from Lucas, totally changing 

the subject.

"Oh?" Lucas said between mouthfuls of food and a swig of his orange juice.

"He wanted to take you over to the mainland today just to get a break for a while" Bridger said.

"You didn't tell him what happened did you?" Lucas now asked, thinking that Ben and possibly the entire crew knew

about his weakness.

"No, but Kristen and I felt rotten that we had to dance around him most of the time he was here and make up excuses

as to why you were in bed so early and why you wouldn't be able to go anywhere to day." Bridger now informed him.

"Sorry you had to do that.    I still need to get a handle on this whole thing myself.  Give me another day or so and I

will get them all together and tell them" Lucas now replied.

"You mean that Lucas?  Because I really think they deserve to know" Bridger now asked sounding a little dubious that

the kid would actually tell them anything at all.

"Yeah I'll tell them" Lucas promised as he put aside his half eaten plate.

"Now that you have finished your breakfast young man, I want to check you over thoroughly" Kristen said, now 

interrupting the conversation between the two of them.

Lucas proceeded to roll his eyes at the thought of being poked and prodded again but didn't have any plausible excuse

for an argument to the contrary.  He sat back and let Kristen do her thing.  She checked his breathing and his pulse.

She asked him to breathe in and out.   Lucas sighed in relief when it was all over with.

"I guess now your going to tell me that I need to rest again just after I woke up" Lucas said dejectedly as he pondered

what his fate was going to be for the rest of the day.

"Only if you want to Lucas.  If you tell me you are still feeling okay for a while, I want to start showing you how to use

the inhaler.   It wouldn't have done you much good with the attack you had yesterday.  But if you start feeling the tightness

in your chest again, that's when you should start using it so you can prevent an attack from being as bad as it was last 

night." Kristen now replied.

Bridger knew that Lucas was in good hands now.  He had wanted to go back earlier to the boat to see how repairs were

going but he stayed until he was sure that Lucas was okay first.  He now told them that he was going to take a look and

should be back in about an hour or two.

For the next half an hour, Kristen patiently and slowly showed Lucas the inhaler and pulled a spare one apart so he could

see how it worked inside.  Then she went onto explain about the chemical inside the inhaler and what it was supposed

to do when he sucked the fumes in.    

"Do you think you could use it on your own now?" she asked after her teaching lesson.

Lucas had done the right thing and tried to remain as focused as his brain would let him.  He had listened to what she

said and although he knew he wouldn't be able to quote word for word.  He was confident enough to think that he could

at least push the button on top of it when he started to feel his chest getting tight.  He convinced himself that it couldn't

be much easier than that.

"Yes, I think so" Lucas replied.   Kristen handed him the inhaler but promised herself that she would go over the routine

again in a few days time to see what he remembered.  She was certain that he had at least listened to part of what she had

said.

Kristen looked at her watch and noted that the Captain probably wasn't due home for a little while yet.  She could see

the dejected look on Lucas's face as he tried to put on a brave front about what had happened the day before.

"What do you say to doing something a little different today?" she now asked with a little sparkle of excitement in her

eyes.  She knew  that Lucas was tired and wouldn't be able to do anything excessive, but she was determined to lift

his dull mood, even just for a little while.

"Sure, what have you got in mind?" the teenager now asked, the curiosity evident in his face.  He had expected Kristen

to be stern and unbending about him resting and taking it easy.  I

"Go and get your swimmers on and a towel while I change into mine" she said and then headed upstairs to her bedroom

to change.

A few minutes later both of them were ready standing in the living room with swimming gear on and a towel.  The temperature

outside today was a whole lot warmer that it had been yesterday afternoon.

"Come on, let's go" Kristen now said as she grabbed a hold of the young man's hand and gently persuaded him to follow

her.

To Lucas's utter surprise they ended up walking the short distance along the sand to the beach.  "You really mean I can

go swimming" he asked with doubt in his mind.  He had put on his swimmers as suggested, but he never actually thought

Kristen would go through with it and allow him to play in the water after his attack yesterday. 

"Yes I mean it.   But take it easy young man" she warned.  "Swimming is the one of the best known method of exercise for

people with Asthma.  The water takes all of the pressure away from your body unlike other exercises such as running and 

playing harder sports.   You can just float in the water and relax.  The salt air should help your lungs open up more.

For the next hour or so Kristen and Lucas took to the water and relaxed just like she suggested.  The boy's mood changed

dramatically as she watched him splash about gently and play with Darwin.  She kept an eye on him the whole time and

was ready to pull him up if he started to get over active, but at the moment, with the smile on his face and the laughter in

his voice, this was a perfect afternoon.

Kristen found her patient much more relaxed and agreeable.  He didn't even put up a fuss when she told him it was time

to head back up to the house.   "And if you promise to behave, you can do that almost everyday" she said to Lucas as the

two of them walked back.  "Especially back on the boat with the Moon Pool.  The temperature of the water can be controlled

and after some time and a regular routine we should start to see an improvement in your breathing and lung capacity.

Just as they reached the front porch, Bridger pulled up outside and greeted the pair of them.  He was a little surprised to

see them both outside and was even a little concerned when he saw the towels and swimming gear.  One look from Kristen

told him that she knew what she was doing.  He looked over at the teenager and couldn't help but be relieved to see a grin

from him.

"Hi you two" he said out loud.

"I am going upstairs to get changed and maybe start on some of that program again Dad" Lucas now said as he walked 

ahead of them into the house.

Bridger and Kristen followed him into the house and watched him go up the stairs and close his bedroom door.

"How is he after last night?" Bridger found himself asking out of habit.

"He is doing just fine.  We spent some time this morning going over the inhaler and how to use it.  It might be a little 

tricky at first for him but given some more practice I think he will get the hang of it eventually.   After the lesson

I suggested a swim.  Being in the water really is the best exercise for him.  Like I told him just now, when we get back

to the boat, I am going to draw up a regular routine for him to swim in the Moon Pool.    He will be able to keep active

without over doing it and his lungs should start to sound a whole lot better with the swimming and his medication

combined."  Kristen explained.

"He looks okay, a little tired but that's probably from the swimming and last night" Bridger now replied.  

"How are the repairs coming?" Kristen queried as she asked about Bridger's afternoon.

"Slow" Bridger said as he worried ran his fingers through his grey hair.  "I think Lucas and Ben may have to postpone

their day outing tomorrow" he added.

"Why?" Kristen asked.

"Well, depending on how Lucas is feeling tomorrow, I may need him to start installing that computer program into the

boat itself.  The other crew members are trying, but they just can't seem to cut it and at the rate they are going they

are going to be there until doom's day.  I already spoke to Ben about working tomorrow as well as the rest of the senior

crew but I wanted to okay it firstly with you and then with him." Bridger commented.

"Well, I have no problem as long as the work he intends to carry out does not involve heavy lifting and he takes regular

breaks.  I could come too if you like.  I have the new staff rosters for the scientific crew to work out and I am sure you

will be there.  With both of us keeping an eye on him he shouldn't be able to over do it too much.

"I think he told me the other day when I turned up with the new laptop's that there is some rewiring to do but other

than that most of it involves sitting at the terminals on the bridge and elsewhere to load the program on.  He seemed to

be pleased with his progress when I spoke to him before yesterday." Bridger now told her.

"You can go and tell him the good news about missing out on his trip tomorrow then while I make a start on dinner"

Kristen now suggested, knowing she had gotten the easier end of the bargain.   

"Gee thanks, you all heart hon" Bridger shot back playfully and got up from the table to head up to Lucas's bedroom.

The door to Lucas's bedroom was three-quarters closed as Bridger approached it.  He could hear music coming from

inside but it was at a tolerable level which didn't seem right for Lucas.  Normally back on the boat you could be direct

down the many hallways to his quarters by the sound of banging drums and screaming guitars.  Lucas told him that's

how he got his concentration.  

Judging on the level of noise coming from his room at the moment, Bridger assumed that Lucas wasn't concentrating

too hard.  He knocked out of respect for the teenager's privacy but when he didn't hear any reply, quieting stole

inside to see what the kid was working at.

He chuckled to himself once he was inside and saw the teenager.   It was true, the kid wasn't concentrating very hard

at all unless you counted catching up on lost sleep concentration.  The kid was at his work station alright, but both

computers where switched off while.  Lucas's head was resting on his folded arms as he leant across the desk.   Not even

the sound of Bridger entering the room seemed to have jostled the kid awake.

The next course of action proved to be a little difficult as Bridger pondered how best to manoeuvre the kid enough to 

get him into the bed.     He had just started to move the slumbering teenager when Lucas woke on his own.

"Um, Oh Hi Captain" Lucas said sheepishly as he tried to make himself a little more alert.   "Sorry, I must have drifted

off.  Boy that swimming really made me tired" he said.  He now got off the chair and moved on his own towards the

bed.  He sat down on it and then laid down, letting Bridger fuss over him just a little.  

He hated to admit it but it was one of the nicer things in his life.  There was a time when he didn't get any affection at 

all no matter how hard he had tried to please his parents.  Sometimes he felt like he was suffocating under all of the 

over-caring that he received from the Captain and the doctor not to mention the crew as well when they were out to sea.

Secretly though, especially when he wasn't feeling quite himself or he got a slap in the face with something like this

asthma condition, he didn't mind the fussing one bit.  This was his last thought as he contently allowed himself to

drift off to sleep once more with a drowsy smile on his face.  

Bridger left the room and headed back downstairs.

Kristen caught the smile on his face as he came down "You two must have had a fun time of it" she said as she placed

the plates around the table for the evening meal.

"Um, Kristen honey, I would scratch one plate if I were you." Bridger now said.  "I didn't get to say two words to him.

He was already asleep across the desk when I went up there.  I woke him trying to move him to the bed.  He didn't

even give me an argument and said that the swimming must have tired him out.    He's asleep already and I imagine

he won't be waking for a couple of hours again, not to eat anyway.  We can just keep it warm for him for later."

"I was hoping that the swimming might also improve his appetite" Kristen said with a touch of disappointment in her

voice.  She knew that Lucas needed rest and had to be thankful that he was at least doing that.  If there was a full

day ahead tomorrow he was probably going to need every ounce of it.

******************************************************************************************

The next morning, everybody was up reasonably early including Lucas.  The early night had done him well and he

was feeling much better than when he had the attack.  Bridger of course had to reiterate the plans for the day.  

Lucas was in two minds about the work ahead on the boat.  On the one hand he was looking forward to spending some

time with Ben and the other crew members in a social atmosphere.  On the other, he was at least glad to be getting

off the island and putting his brain to work for a while.  Lord knows, apart from the time he had spent on the reprogramming 

he hadn't used his thought processes for very much at all since coming off the SeaQuest and getting sick.

After a quick breakfast, which Kristen made sure he ate, they all headed to the car and then to the mainland to join the

rest of the senior crew aboard the boat.   Dress code went right out the window today and everybody was dressed very

casually so that the repairs could be done in the fastest time possible.

"Hey Lucas, great to see you" Ben said cheerfully as he greeted the trio as they came aboard.   For the next few minutes,

the greeting ritual was the same as they wandered around the various parts of the submarine, getting a hearty welcome

from the crew.  

When they finally made it to the Bridge, Commander Jonathan Ford seemed to be the most relieved to see Lucas up and

around this morning.  "Lucas, you don't know how glad I am to see you" he now voiced out aloud.  Lucas knew that

the Commander's welcome was mainly due to him looking for the kid's expertise when it came to main frame computers

but that was okay.

"I get started straight away Commander, on one condition" Lucas now said with a certain determination in his request.

"What's that Lucas?" Ford now said a little perplexed about what the teenager's condition might be.  Lucas was normally

known as a particularly demanding individual and he saw no reason to read anything more into this one now.

"Get rid of all the other turkey's you have working on the project right now.  If you want me to fix the problem that's fine,

the program is mostly finished.  But I work alone.   I can handle the program upload and any rewiring that needs to be

done." Lucas now said.

"Done Lucas" Ford said as he sighed inwardly in relief.  He knew the teenager was good at what he did.  If Lucas said he

could do it alone, he believed him.  

Bridger and Kristen had to smile at Lucas as he proudly smiled about getting his own way.  None of them doubted that

he wouldn't.  

"Commander I will go with you in a minute and you can show me these new ideas that you have for the propulsion system"

Bridger now said.

"I will be in the science labs if you need my assistance Commander" Kristen now added.

Commander Ford got the hint but felt like he was getting the brush off slightly.  "Fine I will see you in Engine room number

2 Captain, Sir" he said and left to attend to the many duties he had lined up for the day.

"Now Lucas, I know you know what I am going to say but I am going to say it anyway" Kristen now said, making sure that

she had the teenager's undivided attention. "Go easy today.  I know you have a lot planned but if your body starts telling

you to take a break, then do it.  The work will still be there after you take a break.   And call if you need anything."

"That goes double for me kiddo" Bridger now said as he and the doctor planned to leave the kid alone to get on with his

own work like he wanted to do.

"Oh Lucas, did you make sure you brought your _thing with you?" Kristen now said, not wanting to blurt out loud about_

the inhaler.   

Lucas tapped the pocket of his jeans to indicate he had.  Once they had walked away he started making plans to install

the new computer system.

About two hours into things, everybody seemed to be making various amounts of progress on their various tasks.  Bridger

and Commander Ford were still wandering about the ship talking about upgrading certain parts that needed attention.

Kristen had been in the science labs all morning as promised and had been studying the staff rosters for the last hour.

The science contingent seemed to be taking on more and more crew members all the time and she didn't have any information

about half of them or their qualifications.   She was beginning to feel frustration and told herself to put things down and

take a walk for a few minutes herself.

Lucas wasn't fairing as well as he might have liked.  He had begun installing the program on some of the less important

terminals first to see how it worked.  If it didn't work quite right when he fired it up, hopefully it would mean that the main

sections of the computer system would be unaffected.  

About half way through the first installation he discovered upon closer inspection that some of the wiring did need 

replacing in places.  He had cursed and swore silently as he found himself crawling into spaces not much bigger than 

a mouse hole to fix some of the frayed wires.   Now with the lower wiring done, he had to turn his attention to the higher 

stuff above his head.  He went and retrieved a ladder from one of the equipment store rooms.

At the time Bridger and Kristen walked into the Moon Pool area, Lucas was perched upon top of the ladder on one of the

corridors, reaching up with wire cutters.  There was a length of red and yellow wire caught between his teeth.  He was

muttering with frustration as he worked.

"Lucas Wolenczak" Kristen now cried out in alarm, not realising what reaction she was about to get.   

Lucas was so tied up in his work that he hadn't heard anybody approach the Moon Pool area.  He just about jumped

clean out of his skin when Kristen barked at him, loosing grip on the wire cutters.   The cutters fell to the floor and the

wire popped out of his mouth as he gasped at the prospect of falling.  Lucas main problem had been to keep his own 

balance and stop himself from falling after them.  

Kristen immediately regretted not letting the teenager know about her presence before talking to him and gasped out

loud as the ladder wobbled back and forth for a few seconds.

Bridger had run forward as had Ford and the two of them stabilized the ladder to stop it from toppling over.

When they looked up to where Lucas was perched, they could see a slightly shaken and pale faced teenager looking

back at them.

"That was close" Lucas managed to get out as he fought to regain his composure.  His heart was still racing in his chest

at one hundred miles and hour.   

"Close?" Bridger now said, letting his own emotions escape.  "Lucas are you alright" he said as he was about to put

his foot on the bottom rung of the ladder and coax the frightened teenager down if necessary.

"Yeah"  Lucas said with hesitation.  "Just didn't hear anybody come up behind me that's all" he said now with a 

sheepish look on his face.  He looked towards Kristen with an apologetic look on his face.

"Lucas, I am sorry I scared you.  I should have made sure you knew I was here first, but what the hell are you doing

on top of that ladder?" she now demanded, letting her fear for his safety hide behind her harsh words.

"I told you before that some of this stuff needed rewiring.  I already climbed through so many rabbit burrows down 

underneath the terminals today you wouldn't believe.  Now that I have down them, I need to get these few higher

ones finished so I can keep going with the installation process" he explained.

"It's just,  it doesn't look terribly safe up there for you Lucas" Kristen said knowing that she was coming across as

too much of a mother figure at the moment.  "Are you sure nobody else could be doing that for you?"

"No there's nobody else and besides I want to do it anyway.  There's too much work needed all around the boat to

be dragging someone else away from their duties" he said, there was a little frustration creeping in his voice that sounded

like it was directed at Kristen but most of it was due to this having to rewire just about everything.

"How much longer do you think you will be Lucas?" Bridger now said as he interrupted the conversation with Kristen

and the teenager.  He could see the boy was starting to get frustrated but he could also see the concern written over

the doctor's face.   He had to be the mediator and come between them before something was said that they would both

regret.

"Oh, only about half an hour at the most.  I have been up here for almost that now and I am nearly done.  Can you hand

me back my wire cutters please and the wire?"

Kristen wasn't totally happy about Lucas still being on the ladder.  But she didn't want to start an unnecessary argument

by voicing her concerns.  She looked back at Lucas who now had the wire cutters back in his hand and the wire in his

mouth and commenced the task he was half-way through.  Kristen now headed back to her own office with a final glance

back towards him.

Bridger had been almost as scared as Kristen when he saw the ladder about to fall.  He stayed a few extra minutes while

Lucas worked, making sure that he was okay.  He knew he couldn't stay for the next half an hour and Lucas wouldn't 

want him waiting underneath him like an old mother hen anyway.  He also left to rejoin Commander Ford and their tour

inspection of the boat.

For the next fifteen minutes, everything seemed to be going as it had for the majority of the morning.  Everybody was

busy with their related tasks.     Ben Krieg didn't know that Lucas was working near the Moon Pool.   After he had

greeted the teenager along with the Captain and Kristen this morning, he had been busy in his room working out a stores

list.   He had to make sure that there was enough food on board for the next tour.   He had to make sure there was enough

clothes, medical equipment not to mention every other supply item that they stocked whilst on duty.  He had pages and

pages of items to go through first to see how much he needed of each and then get onto Murray, his contact and try

wheeling and dealing the best deal out of him for the U.E.O.

Ben decided that he too needed to give himself a break.  He came out of his quarters and headed towards the Moon

Pool and the Bridge were he expected to run into somebody else.

As Ben closed the door of his room,  Lucas had moved the ladder so that he was right up against the wall heading of

the corridor his friend was walking down.   Lucas had just climbed up again and was unscrewing one of the ceiling

panels ready to see what rewiring was needed underneath.

Ben went to turn the corner into the Moon Pool area but had no idea that there was a ladder in his way.   Without 

knowing it he knocked into the aluminium frame with quite a bit of force.  He was cursing under his breath about

who would put a stupid ladder in the way when he heard a strangled cry from above him.

Lucas had been concentrating on getting the panelling off when he felt his balance upset again.  Unlike with Kristen

though he didn't have time to be startled.  The ladder was just falling and he could feel himself fall with it.   In the

background he could hear what sounded like his own brief scream as he felt himself falling.

"BBBBBBBEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNN………………………"

The next thing Ben saw was a flash of white as the ladder toppled over on it's side.  Once he was over the shock of 

watching the ladder, he could now see that the white flash was wearing a Marlin's shirt and huddled in a ball on 

the floor, whimpering in pain.

He had tried in desperation to grab a hold of something, anything to prevent him hitting the floor but his hands only 

grabbed at air.   He fell on his stomach and chest, the air in his lungs rushing out of him all at once.   Lucas's eyes

were squeezed tightly together trying to deal with the pain in his chest.  The air in his lungs was now all gone and

try as he might, he just couldn't seem to draw anymore into them.  

Lucas tried to look around for someone to help him.   His span of vision was restricted to directly in front of him as 

he felt the lungs in his chest begin to constrict.  He could feel them getting tighter and tighter.  He tried once more

to draw some oxygen into them.  He could feel a sense of fear overwhelm him as he realised what the restriction in

his chest was telling him.  He was on the verge of having another attack.    He started groping blindly for the pocket

of his jeans, but his hands were trembling both from fear and the pain in his chest.  He couldn't seem to find the

pocket.  This made the panic in his rise even more.

"Help, please…….." he whispered, his voice barely carrying to anybody.  He didn't realise that his friend Ben was

already kneeling beside him with concern and worry written all over his face.

"CAPTAIN, KRISTEN, ANYBODY" Ben shouted at the top of his voice.   He could see the pain written on the

young man's face and the fear in his eyes.   He didn't think he should leave the injured teenager alone long enough

to go and get help.

TO BE CONTINUED……………………………….

YEAH I KNOW – YOU ALL HATE ME ALREADY – SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE – I HAD SOME

WRITTEN AND THEN WROTE SOME MORE – I WAS INTENDING TO WRITE EVEN MORE BUT DECIDED

TO LEAVE YOU HANGING YET AGAIN……………

JULES


	4. CHAPTER 4

BREATHE  
  
This is a Sequel to the story RESPONSIBILITY - if you haven't read that one you need to so that you understand the characters that will be introduced later in the story. Murphy makes a come back later in the story so for now you will just have to be patient until I get to that part. Enjoy  
  
PART FOUR  
  
Ben was kneeling beside Lucas trying to do what he could to help his distressed friend. Problem was that Ben was freaking out almost much as the teenager. He didn't have a clue what he could do to help his friend. All the emergency medical training that he had received at the U.E.O. academy didn't mean a damn thing right now.  
  
Footsteps could be heard coming down the corridor at great speed, signalling the appearance of Bridger and Kristen and some help.  
  
Lucas was still curled up in an almost foetal position with his hands hugged tightly to his chest and his face clenched tightly with the pain that he was currently feeling.  
  
"I c-can't b-breathe....." Lucas managed to stammer out through a tightened jaw. His breaths were coming in ragged gasps as he tried to draw air into his starved lungs. Trouble was that he was trying too hard and almost choking on any air that did manage to inhale and it was this that was making the gasping sounds.  
  
Kristen went straight into doctor mode, pushing aside her personal feelings right now. She was trying to pull Lucas's hands away from his chest to try and see what damaged had been caused.  
  
It was only a brief glance sideways that showed the toppled ladder a few feet behind the frightened teenager. The rest she put together and came up with a plausible reason for the accident.  
  
Lucas was still trying to breathe too quickly and the harder he tried, the less air he was getting, making the panicking start all over again.  
  
"Nathan, kneel behind him and sit him upright with his back against your legs" Kristen now instructed. Bridger did what was asked and knelt behind Lucas while Ben assisted where he could.  
  
With the teenager overtaken by his fear, it took both of them to pull him into a sitting position as he fought them the entire way.  
  
With Lucas now sitting in an upright position, Kristen once again tried to pry his hands away from his chest, thinking that the protectiveness must indicate the area most injured. She prayed to God that this wasn't the case. With his weakened lungs, the last thing he needed was a blow to that direct area.  
  
"I c-can't breathe" Lucas repeated again, hoping someone would help him soon. He was quite out of it with the pain and confusion and failed to note that help had already arrived.  
  
"Lucas, you are too tense. That's why you can't breathe properly. You need to relax your body so that the air can get through to your lungs and then to the muscles. You need to calm down honey" she said in a gentle but firm voice.  
  
"I c-can't" Lucas said, letting his fear get the better of him again.  
  
"Yes you can Lucas. Breathe with me, in.out..in.out....one...two" Kristen said as she tried to get the teenager to relax his body.  
  
Lucas tried his hardest to comply and do as Kristen said. His breathing seemed to become a little easier as he listened to her instructions and tried to take longer, deeper breaths instead of small little ones that didn't do anything but make him labour for air even more.  
  
Kristen had been too focused on giving Lucas the help he needed to remember that Ben was still with them. She had briefly forgotten all about the promises she and Bridger had made to Lucas about keeping his condition a secret until he was ready to tell it to the rest of the crew.  
  
"Lucas, listen to me, where is your medicine inhaler?" Kristen asked, gripping his chin gently to get the boy focusing his attention on her question long enough to answer coherently.  
  
Lucas didn't speak, trying to keep his concentration on his breathing techniques, but pointed to the pocket of his jeans. Kristen could see the tell-tale bulge in the material that indicated what she was looking for.  
  
Ben watched with confusion and worry as he saw Kristen pull out the inhaler and give it to Lucas. "What was Lucas doing with an asthma inhaler?" He had seen them before so he knew what it was as soon as it came into view.  
  
Kristen tried to get Lucas's attention long enough for him to focus on taking the medication in an attempt to try and help him. "Lucas.... Lucas you need.....," she found herself repeating.  
  
However, at present, Lucas had his eyes squeezed tightly together in a grimace of pain and had his hands clutched together grasping at his chest and beating on it a couple of times as if to make his starving lungs take a breath of fresh air.  
  
Even though Ben was still a little in the dark as to why Lucas was receiving the medication in the first place. A lot of questions had already formed in his head over the last few minutes that he was determined to have Doctor Westphalen answer just as soon as Lucas was attended to properly. He had already worked out some of the questions in his own mind, but didn't like the answers he was coming up with.  
  
"Lucas we are here for you, I know it hurts son, but let Kristen help you," Bridget now said trying to back up what Kristen was already telling the teenager. He didn't want to move too much from the position he was in for fear of causing more pain to Lucas until Kristen could get a better look at him.  
  
Kristen tried once more to get Lucas to focus on the inhaler and the medicinal help it contained. For a brief few seconds, it looked as though her calming words were beginning to have an effect as Lucas raised his head slightly and looked at her with glassy blue eyes.  
  
Lucas took the inhaler from the doctor with hands that were trembling slightly and held it to his lips, ready to take a deep breath. But just as he took the breath, he was assaulted by a sharp pain through his ribcage and he accidentally knocked the inhaler out of his hand as he reached for the area causing him the distress.  
  
"Ben go and grab my bag just on the other side of the doorway there," Kristen now ordered the Lieutenant knowing that they just weren't getting through enough to the distraught teenager. The pain, the asthma and his breathing were all fighting against him and them at the moment and they needed even the odds a little if they were truly going to be of any genuine help to Lucas.  
  
Krieg did as he was directed to and quickly came scurrying back with Kristen's small medical bag tightly in his hand. He gave it to her and now watched intently as she rummaged around inside it.  
  
After a few seconds, Kristen brought out a small cylindrical shaped instrument, almost like an atomiser with a different looking spray nozzle on the top. Without out consenting Lucas any further and looking briefly at Bridger and acknowledging her curt nod with one of his own, she placed the suction like disc against the skin on the teenager's neck and pressed the canister twice in her hand.  
  
Ben now looked back at Lucas's face as Kristen drew the instrument away and he noted the teenager's eyelids were already beginning to droop due to the medicine that had just been administered.  
  
After a few more seconds, Lucas's hands that had been so tightly grabbing at his shirt, now fell away to his sides and his entire body became very lax from the sedative properties. His head now bowed towards his chin. Bridger held Lucas upright as he adjusted his position and now laid the teenager down.  
  
"Let's get him back to Med-Bay so I can take a look at him," Kristen now stated. "He was just too agitated. He was really doing himself more harm than good," she added, justifying her use of the sedative.  
  
Commander Jonathan Ford too had raced to the scene of the toppled ladder, but had held back a little when Bridger and Kristen took over the scene. He now saw his opportunity to help out by carrying the sleeping teenager between himself and Ben Krieg towards Med Bay.  
  
After a few minutes, Ford and Krieg carefully deposited Lucas onto one of the empty beds in Med Bay. Ford could see some questions forming on Ben's lips and thought it best that he get on with his maintenance routine. He was positive that Bridger or Doctor Westphalen would both let him know about the teenager's condition after a detailed examination.  
  
Ford's awkwardness about being in the room at the moment showed as he went to excuse his presence from the room. "Captain, if it is alright with you and you can manage here with Ben, I will continue with the maintenance checks. I am sure I would only be crowding the room anyway."  
  
Bridger couldn't help but notice the man's uneasiness and looked at Kristen before getting a curt nod from her about Ben still being in the room. Whatever they wanted to discuss about Lucas would have to wait until after Ben left.  
  
However, Ben was a little more astute then they gave him credit for and he had already sensed something wasn't right about the whole thing. He wasn't going to beat around the bush. That wasn't Ben's style. He would just come right out and ask. Lucas was asleep so he wouldn't be involved in the discussion and the drug that he had received from Kristen would see to it that he wasn't disturbed either.  
  
"What is going on Captain?" Ben asked plainly and a little emphasis in his voice.  
  
"I don't know what you mean Ben," Bridger replied, trying to shirk the question all together.  
  
"Don't treat me like a five year old please Sir," Ben now said, he was trying his hardest not to get angry at the Captain. "Why was Lucas carrying an asthma inhaler? What's wrong with him?"  
  
Bridger could tell by Krieg's voice that he wasn't going to be easily brushed off by his ignoring the man's questions. Ben didn't deserve that and they both knew it. Ben was Lucas's best friend.  
  
"Wait until the doctor finishes here with Lucas and we will sit down and talk," Bridger now suggested, knowing that they still had to attend to Lucas first.  
  
Ben seemed happy enough with this explanation. He was patient. He would wait like the Captain asked, but only until after Lucas had been seen too and was resting comfortably. Then he would still be demanding answers and wanting to know why he was being left in the dark about Lucas's medical condition.  
  
For the next half an hour, Ben worked with the Captain and Doctor Westphalen instead of against them. He gently held Lucas into a sitting position with Bridger as Kristen removed the young man's shirt and took at look at his chest.  
  
Lucas's breathing had been slowed somewhat with the administration of the sedative. It was no longer so laboured or wheezy sounding. Lucas's chest rose slowly and rhythmically, with all three standing and watching and finding relief that there seemed to be no serious injuries to Lucas.  
  
"Those ribs are not broken or even cracked thankfully," Kristen began to explain to the two men in the room. "They are badly bruised but considering the height he fell from on top of the ladder he is very lucky."  
  
"Although he had a mild asthma attack, I think it was brought more on by his state of pain rather than anything else. His fear only seemed to escalate the problem and the more frightened that he became once he realised he was having an attack, the more restricted his lungs became and thus the more difficult it became for him to breathe correctly," she continued.  
  
"He should be waking up soon, that sedative I gave him was a relatively mild one. When he does, I think he would be much more comfortable back in his own bed so we will take him home. As long as there are no major problems tomorrow, I think he should be able to resume some sort of normal activity, so long as he takes it easy. Those ribs are probably going to be tender for a day or so," Kristen added.  
  
"And while we are waiting for him to wake up we can go into your office doctor and you can tell me all about this asthma thing that Lucas has," Ben now said, trying to hide the sarcastic tones in his words.  
  
"Okay Ben, just let me cover him to keep warm, you and the Captain wait in the next room," Kristen said with a little guilt. She and Bridger had promised Lucas that they would keep this a secret until he decided to tell the crew in his own time. Unfortunately it looked as though they were going to go back on that promise. She couldn't help but have a feeling of betrayal at what see was about to reveal to Ben.  
  
When Kristen walked into her office a few minutes later, Ben and Bridger had been idly chatting about the maintenance on the boat. She could see from the looks on their faces that they hadn't been talking about Lucas just yet. Obviously they were waiting for her to join them before tackling that topic of discussion.  
  
"Look doc, before you and the Captain say anything. I am sorry about the way I spoke to you both in the Med Bay, but I am Lucas's friend. If there is something wrong with him medically, then I want to know so I can be there to help him. I only want to know because I like the kid so much."  
  
Kristen and Ben both knew that it took a lot for Ben Krieg to admit such feelings to anybody. Although he would fly off at the drop of a hat about almost anything. Hiding his emotions and feelings was one of his best tricks. There was only one other person they knew who did it better than he and that was the friend he was talking about: Lucas.  
  
"Before I say anything to you, I must tell you that Nathan and I promised Lucas that we wouldn't tell any of the crew. And unfortunately that meant you too Ben. So that's why you haven't been informed about his condition up until now," Kristen tried to explain in her defence.  
  
"Lucas hasn't been very well since coming down sick on the boat," Bridger now said. "In fact he should have been better weeks ago but hasn't. A week or so ago, Kristen and I took Lucas back to the hospital to see Dr Kavanagh again. He did some pretty routine tests and diagnosed Lucas with asthma. He says he doesn't know how long Lucas may have it. It may be only temporary, or it may not. Only time will tell," he added leaving the statement a little unfinished.  
  
"You should have seen him Ben, he could scarcely walk up a flight of stairs without being out of breath like you saw today," Kristen said with empathy in her voice. "But he is now on regular medication which we hope will see him at least manage his condition. He has a mild exercise routine that he is sticking to and already he had seen some improvement in his own health from that."  
  
"So what can I do to help him?' Ben asked after taking in everything that they were telling him. For a few seconds he almost couldn't find the words to say in return.  
  
"The main thing you can do for Lucas is just be you," Kristen now said in all seriousness. "Lucas already fells down and like he is the only target at the moment. He needs some stability and normality in his life again. Go and do the things you would always do. Joke around with him. Have fun."  
  
"But," Bridger now said with a warning.  
  
"But?" Ben now repeated knowing there had to be some sort of catch to it all.  
  
"But don't let him fool you either. He needs plenty of rest and to take his medicine on a daily basis. There will be times when he doesn't feel quite a hundred per cent and that's when you as his friend, are going to have to take note for him and make him pull up and stop working or take a break," Kristen now informed him.  
  
"Hopefully it is only temporary and after a few months, he will be back to normal and able to look back and laugh at all of this," Bridger now stated. "But for now, for Lucas all we ask is that you keep this information under you hat until Lucas decides that he wanted the rest of the crew to know."  
  
"I hate to even think what he is going to say when he knows we have told even you Ben," Kristen said with her guilty conscience kicking in once again.  
  
"Don't worry doc, I will take care of him for you and I promise not to breath a word of it to anybody else. I will look out for him like always," Ben said with his normal joking overtones.  
  
"What are we going to tell the Commander?" Ben genuinely asked knowing that Jonathan would at least appreciate an update about the fall and any possible injuries Lucas might have received.  
  
"Kristen and I will get Lucas back home and resting in his own bed," Bridger replied. "I will leave it to you to explain about Lucas having some bruised ribs and needing to take it easy. Tell him I will contact him later today about what is going to happen with the maintenance schedule tomorrow. I will let know if Lucas will be doing anything with the computers tomorrow by then."  
  
"Right you are Captain," Ben said as he prepared to leave Kristen's office and go find Commander Ford. "Oh by the way Captain. If everything works out tomorrow, I thought just to break up the norm it would be good to have a cook out on the beach near the jetty or something in the evening. We can all bring a plate of food and enjoy the waves at the same time."  
  
"That sounds great Ben," Bridger said with a smile. "We probably won't be able to do it for a while once we are back out to sea on duty. I am sure Lucas would enjoy something like that too."  
  
"At least you won't have to cook tomorrow night Doc," Ben finally said with a grin before heading out the door.  
  
"Always the Morale Officer," Kristen said with a laugh at Ben's suggestion. She knew the cook out was mostly for Lucas's benefit are what he had heard about his asthma. But that didn't matter, they could all use a break from the norm.  
  
"Always," Bridger said in agreement with a smirk of his own at Krieg's endless positive outlook. It didn't matter how bad the news got for Ben, he always tried to see the brighter side of life. If things still looked a little gloomy and sad, he would find a way to bring in some cheerfulness and make it happy again.  
  
"See you later Lucas," Ben said as he went back into see how Lucas was doing before he left the Med Bay. The teenager seemed to be doing okay at the moment and resting enough, so he could go without worry too much.  
  
Ben didn't take long to find Commander Ford. "Hi Commander," he greeted the dark-skinned man as he watched Jonathan push a few of the controls on the bridge's main console.  
  
"How's Lucas doing?" Ford asked, looking up from his work.  
  
"Bridger and the doctor are waiting for him to wake up so they can take him back to the island. He's okay, just a little bruised and sore Kristen said. He should be right tomorrow as long as he takes it fairly easily," he added, noting the grimace on Ford's face about how much more delay there would be if Lucas wasn't well enough to complete the computer program uploads.  
  
"Well he's okay and that's the main thing. We will manage without him if he doesn't feel up to anything," Ford said as his mind started to tick over about reassigning certain tasks if it became absolutely necessary.  
  
"If it's all right with you, I would like to stick with Lucas for much of tomorrow just to make sure he takes it easy like the doctor says," Krieg now commented.  
  
"Sure, but don't blame me when he goes off at you being under his feet," Ford now jibed.  
  
"I told the Captain if everything goes to plan tomorrow and we get finished with the repairs that we might be able to have cook out on his island down by the jetty," Ben now informed the Commander.  
  
"Hey you know Krieg, that's a great idea. Especially since we will all be stuck aboard here for the next three months. Hopefully after tomorrow the repairs will be finished at last and everybody, including Lucas can relax down on the beach," Ford said.  
  
************************************************************************  
Captain Bridger and Kristen didn't have to wait much past an hour for Lucas to show some signs of coming back awake. While he was unable to put up much resistance due to his groggy state, Kristen began to check his ribs and listen to his breathing. She was satisfied that the effects of the mild attack seemed to be limited.  
  
"Come on junior, lets get you home so you can rest properly," Bridger now said fondly with a smile. Lucas nodded his head, although he hadn't quite put together what was said to him. His fuzzy brain just told him to go with them. He eased himself off the edge of the bed and allowed Kristen and Bridger to support most of his weight on either side.  
  
Bridger didn't know why he just didn't pick up the injured teenager and carry him to the car, but for the moment that seemed like the wrong thing to do and so he and Kristen did their best to guide the unsteady teenager to the vehicle and lay him down in the back seat.  
  
By the time Kristen made her way around to the other side of the car to adjust Lucas's head, the teenager was already well on his way back to sleep again. Bridger smiled at the sleepy boy as he got into the driver's seat and started their way towards the jetty and the ferry to take them back to the island.  
  
The ferry skipper had given them all a strange look as Kristen and Bridger once again helped an almost asleep teenager to a seat in the back of the vessel. Once back at the jetty on the island, Lucas was transferred to Bridger's own private car and the trio now drove towards the house.  
  
For the rest of the afternoon, Lucas spent the majority of his time sleeping on the couch in front of the T.V. It wasn't the comfort and complete rest that Kristen was hoping for that afternoon. But it saved the arguments and complaints that would ensue if there was forced rest in his bedroom. Most of the time Lucas never saw what show was on anyway. Due to the residual effects of the sedative and the pain that he was still experiencing in his ribs, sleep was what he did.  
  
A little later on that afternoon when he was much alert, Kristen explained to him what injuries and bruising he had received from the ladder fall and reminded him of taking it easy for the rest of that day and the next. She also told him about the cook out on the beach that Krieg had suggested and that idea seemed to lift the teenager's spirits greatly.  
  
Kristen then carefully and gently explained to him that it was mostly the pain he was feeling and his own anxiety and fear had caused his asthma attack to become worse. Lucas was a little upset at himself for causing any unnecessary stress to Bridger and Kristen whilst they were trying to help him.  
  
Bridger reminded him that he had nothing to be apologetic for and that it was perfectly understandable how he had coped with the pain he was feeling. The bruising was proof of that pain.  
  
Kristen once again went through some of the things Lucas may have forgotten about his asthma management, like the use of his inhaler on a regular basis and his Ventolin medication. She assured him that things would get better and no matter how much they all were prepared, sometimes things would still go wrong. They just had to know what to do if something like that did happen in the future again.  
  
By the time Lucas retired to bed for the night he was much more relaxed about what had happened.  
  
Early the next morning, Lucas rose fairly early to see what plans Bridger had made the night before about what maintenance was left to be carried out that day. Lucas gave him an update on how things had been progressing with the computer program installation before he had his accident.  
  
Bridger had contacted Commander Ford about the routine for the next day and asked how the rest of his afternoon had turned out. Ford reported that he and Krieg had achieved a fair amount between them. He secretly sighed in relief when Bridger told him that he thought Lucas would be at least present to help out tomorrow. Ford told the Captain about Ben's request to work the teenager.  
  
Bridger didn't have any objections and silently praised Ben for once again looking out for his friend, but warned Jonathan about what was going to happen when Lucas thought his space was being invaded too much.  
  
Kristen thought it better to pre-warn Lucas about his new partner for the day before they got to the boat. At least that way it would be such a problem. She told him over breakfast.  
  
"Why does Ben want to work with me today anyway?" Lucas now asked as he let the idea run through his head. He had specifically asked Commander Ford yesterday to work alone because that's what he liked and that's when he did his best work. Now that was all about to change today. He was trying to think hard about what he could get Ben to help out with.  
  
"I think he got a bit scared about what happened yesterday Lucas," Kristen said as she tried her best to explain. "And I think he feels a little bit guilty about causing the ladder to topple over in the first place. He just wants to make it up to you somehow and make sure you are okay."  
  
Lucas blushed slightly and was a tad awkward at Ben's show of friendship. He didn't have the heart to say that Ben couldn't help out.  
  
When they got to the boat later that morning, most of the other senior crew members were also present, including Katie Hitchcock, Miguel Ortiz and Tim O'Neill. They all wanted to pitch in as much as possible and then enjoy the cook out that Ben had informed them all about.  
  
The crew members that hadn't been present the day before had been discreetly told about Lucas's mishap and the bruising he had received as a result. They all made a mental note to check on how the teenager was doing throughout the day and keep an eye out for any signs of pain that he maybe hiding.  
It wasn't until mid-morning, just before lunch that Lucas's patience with his new found shadow began to show signs of running out. There had even been two occasions when Lucas had been working on a panel underneath a console. When he got up to check something, he had smacked right into Ben who had been peering over his shoulder.  
  
At first there were only a few mumbled dark words from the teenager and a scowl on his face to show is displeasure at Ben's persistence. At the end of the day, Lucas found it much quicker and easier to just do the work himself rather than take the time it would need to teach and show Ben. It had to be that way if they ever had plans to finish the repairs today.  
  
Ben had asked Lucas quite a number of times whether or not he was feeling okay or if he had any pain. It got to the stage where Lucas was able to almost predict when the question was going to be asked before Ben opened his mouth. He tried to be pleasant about it but it was beginning to grate on his nerves.  
  
On top of Ben's persistent questioning, Kristen and Bridger had also made regular checks on him to see how he was doing. By now he was answering the questions through clench teeth to prevent his saying something he may regret. He knew they all meant well and were only being concerned, but it was all wearing a little thin after a while.  
  
Now, most of the crew had centred their finished off tasks around the Bridge area. Lucas was part of this and running through some of the last minute checks on the computer consoles before lunch.  
  
Hopefully after that he would be finished. At much as he hated to admit it, he was beginning to feel a little weary. The pain to his ribs had been bearable, mostly a dull ache. He had felt it the most when he had to bend down to reach a panel underneath the work stations or reach up above his head.  
  
As usual, Lucas hadn't mentioned any of it to Ben or the others though. He didn't think it was bad enough to stop working all together. He had already taken his asthma medication before leaving the island and his inhaler was safely tucked away out of view in his pocket again.  
  
Lucas was becoming annoyed with one of the console which was having trouble accepting the program installation. It was taking much longer than the others and he couldn't hide his impatience and frustrations. Just as he went to bend down to take a look at the internal workings for the fourth time, cursing as loudly as he dared, he accidentally hit his head against Ben's who was once again bending over him too closely.  
  
"BEEENNNN!!!!" Lucas cried out loudly as he got up and rubbed at the area on top of his head. He looked over and could see Ben rubbing at his chin where Lucas's head had connected. He had a lopsided grin on his face that was meant as a poor apology effort.  
  
"GET OUT OF MY FACE," Lucas now shouted at his friend. The frustration was a combination of the pain in his head and chest and partly due to his failure at making the system do what he wanted it to do.  
  
Bridger was quickly on the scene, surveying the top of Lucas's head for any sign of injury but all he got in return for his probing was an angry looking teenager pulling his head away roughly and a scowl.  
  
"Lucas how about you go with Commander Ford and Miguel to get the supplies that were ordered," Bridger now suggested, trying to diffuse the situation before it grew out of all proportion. "You get take some extra time and get some lunch too," he added trying to get the teenager to take a break from his work without actually saying the word "break".  
  
"Yeah sure," Lucas said in an annoyed voice. He tossed the little hand held instrument he had been using onto the work station, not really caring where it landed at the moment. He really did need to get out of here before he blew his stack for no good reason.  
  
Commander Ford and Miguel had already teed up to go on the supply run and were only too happy to carry out the Captain's orders and get the frustrated teenager off the boat before he exploded in anger. Bridger had failed to tell Lucas though that Ben had to accompany them all on the supply run because his name would appear on the invoice as part of his supply officer duties. As Lucas and the other prepared to leave, Krieg also got up to go with them, thus adding to the teenager's invasion of space once again.  
  
"He's coming with us now too?" Lucas asked, his voice sounding a little tired rather than annoyed. Nobody really took any notice, but the teenager had been rubbing aimlessly at this chest area for about the last half an hour now. Trying to relieve a slight tightness he was just beginning to detect.  
  
"He has to go Lucas to sign the invoices," Ford now said to Lucas in a calm voice.  
  
"So long as he doesn't sit beside me in the vehicle too," Lucas replied and walked out the door towards the transports without so much as a word of goodbye to Kristen or the Captain.  
  
"Lay off a little him huh," Bridger said briefly to Krieg as he grabbed at his shirt sleeve just before the man left the boat. Ben nodded his agreement, knowing that he had been getting too close all morning. He just couldn't help it though.  
  
Ben kept seeing images of the fall Lucas had taken from the ladder the day before and the words Kristen had said about him having asthma. He just could help but be worried for his young friend. He told himself he would just have to refrain himself a little more in showing it that was all.  
  
Sometimes Ben just had a knack for over doing something and this was exactly one of those occasions. Lucas felt like he was suffocating and Bridger knew that he and Kristen had been adding to the teenager's frustration. He was to blame just as much as Ben was.  
  
On the way to the supply depot in the transport, Lucas was unusually silent. Commander Ford drove, whilst Miguel and Ben sat in the rear seat. The tension was obvious and nobody had the words to break the silence.  
  
The drive was a good ten minutes though and as the gentle breeze blew through Lucas's blonde hair, his temper began cooling off and he started to regret the angry words he had shouted at Ben.  
  
As they pulled up and got out of the vehicle, Lucas walked over to Krieg and tried to make amends for his outburst. "I am sorry about what I said back there Ben," Lucas said, rubbing at his chest again.  
  
"It's okay Lucas, I should have known better then to be getting up so close and personal today, I am sorry too," Ben replied. "Let's forget what happened and just go back to being friends okay?"  
  
"Deal," Lucas answered with a grin and the two friends shook hands for all to see. The friendship was still in tact and the others were relieved to see it.  
  
It wasn't until the crew members began loading the supplies into the back of the U.E.O. transport that Lucas suspected Ben knew a little more about his hidden condition than he ought to know.  
  
The supplies were packed into a number of boxes, some of them small, some much larger. Up until know Lucas had not shown any signs of feeling off to the others. They all thought he was holding up fairly well considering the fall he had taken off a ladder yesterday.  
  
Lucas now bent down and attempted to pick up one of the larger boxes on his own. It wasn't very heavy in weight, just awkward due to it's size but by the time it was loaded into the back of the vehicle, Lucas's breathing was becoming a little audible and sounded somewhat laboured.  
  
"Are you okay Lucas?" Ben asked as he heard the wheezy sounds of breathing from his friend. It didn't sound as bad as the day before, but he couldn't help but be a little concerned.  
  
"Maybe you should take it easier and let us handle the larger and heavier boxes Lucas," Ben now suggested, unprepared for the backlash he was about to receive.  
  
"I can handle it just fine thank you Krieg," Lucas said in a low voice to disguise his suspiciousness. With most of the loading done anyway, Lucas now went to the front seat of the vehicle and took up the silent mood he had earlier. His mind was ticking over about how much Ben might know. "What was that all about Ben?" Miguel asked in a whisper. He didn't think the Lieutenant had said anything to deserve such a cold reply from the teenager. The two of them were out of ear shot of Lucas as they spoke.  
  
"Captain just wants him to take it easy Miguel," Ben replied, "Didn't you hear the sound of his breathing?" he added. It was just as the last word left his lips that Ben realised with horror about what he had done.  
  
Miguel was quick enough to pick up on the word "breathing" unfortunately for Ben and continued along that line of questioning. "Why is the Captain concerned about Lucas's breathing?" he now asked out of curiosity. He thought that they wanted to keep an eye on Lucas because of the fall he had yesterday. Up until now nobody had mentioned anything about breathing problems.  
  
Ben inwardly kicked himself as hard as he could. How could he just let it slip out so easily like that? Now how was he going to get out of this mess he had just created? It soon became clear that it was going to be rather difficult to get out of because Commander Ford had heard Miguel's question about why were people concerned about Lucas's breathing.  
  
He tried to cover his mistake with the minimal amount of information to the rest of the crew. In a whispered voice he told them about Lucas maybe having the condition asthma and that he needed to keep any strenuous activity to as little as possible. He also told them that Lucas didn't want anybody know and that he should not have said anything.  
  
Ford and Miguel promised not to mention anything to Lucas but both of them found themselves wondering about what they would do if Lucas did start having real breathing problems when they were around.  
  
"What are we waiting for?" Lucas asked in an impatient voice, not knowing that his friends had been discussing the very thing he was trying to keep secret. He already suspected that Ben had somehow come to know more than he should but he had no idea that Ford and Ortiz now also knew.  
  
"Coming Lucas," Ford announced, breaking up the little meeting before Lucas became even more suspicious to the topic of conversation.  
  
On the way home, Ford and Miguel found themselves trying their hardest to listen to Lucas's breathing without him knowing to see if they could pick up on what Krieg had told them. But to their dismay, everything sounded perfectly okay.  
  
They couldn't hear any distinct wheezing or shallow breathing that was known to occur with asthma. Lucas seemed okay. A little ticked off at Ben at the moment after their brief reconciliation, but okay nonetheless.  
  
When they returned earlier than expected to the boat, Bridger knew that nerves were still on edge. Lucas came aboard, slamming the door to his cabin to get away from all the prying eyes and everyone asking if he was alright. For now the tightness in his chest seemed to have gone away. He didn't feel like talking to anybody right now.  
  
Bridger had asked Ben how the trip went. Ben couldn't hide his guilt though and admitted to the Captain and Kristen about his slip after Lucas had lifted the boxes and his breathing had sounded rather shallow. He informed them that he had told them as little as possible and swore them to secrecy about Lucas. Somehow Kristen and Bridger were not convinced that Lucas was going to be able to hide his asthma from the rest of the crew for much longer.  
  
Ben suggested they should start packing up and getting ready for the cook out on the beach as a way of clearing the air and trying to get the teenager to relax again. Bridger agreed and started to finish up what he was doing as did Kristen and the other crew members.  
  
There was still a small amount of repair work to be carried out, but nothing that couldn't be done once they were back underway to the open oceans again. The vessel was seaworthy and ready for there next tour of duty.  
Whilst Ben and the Captain were preparing to pack up and leave for the rest of the island though, they were unaware that Miguel had been unable to keep his secret about Lucas. He had now told Katie Hitchcock and Tim O'Neill on the Bridge about the asthma.  
  
Miguel also told them about everybody keeping an eye out that Lucas didn't over do things. Katie and Tim like everybody else was now watching the youth whether he like it or not.  
  
Despite the fact that they had been told to keep the information secret. They were soon going to be falling all over him in an effort to keep their own worries at bay. They didn't think now that there would be any underlying and devastating consequences to their vigilance.  
  
****************************************************************  
  
Later that afternoon, everyone was seated on the sand by the jetty on Bridger's island. Everyone had tried to relax and forget about the arguments and harsh words spoken during the day. The sun was just beginning to set in the background, the tides were rolling in and were almost mesmerising if you watched them long enough.  
  
Ben had tried to keep his eye on Lucas from a distance. He knew that the kid was only just beginning to relax for the first time all afternoon and he didn't want to spoil it by hovering around him all over again.  
  
Lucas had actually moved away from the rest of the group slightly and was sitting on the firmer sand, watching the tide roll in and roll out. He was close enough to hear the chatter of the rest of the crew but then far enough away to get lost in his own thoughts and enjoy the gentle breeze as it ruffled his hair.  
  
Apart from wanting the peace of the waves, Lucas was actually trying to suppress the tightening in his chest that had re-emerged about an hour ago. Whilst he was turned away, the other crew members couldn't see the slight grimaces and frowns on his face from the pain.  
  
Kristen and Bridger had been a little disappointed at Lucas's attempts to sit a little away from the rest of the crew. But at the end of the day they were certain that the teenager would come around once the aroma of food wafted across the sand to him. They were unaware that suspicions Lucas had held all afternoon were about to erupt into full scale accusations  
  
They hoped that soon the gentle breeze would erode away the frustrations of the day and Lucas would be back to his normal self by the time they left for home.  
  
Some of the food was now ready and Tim walked over to where Lucas was sitting and offered the teenager a sample. When Lucas turned to place his hand in the bowl though, even Tim could tell that the teenager was less than well. There was a paleness to his face and he looked as though he had been sweating slightly. Tim could also hear a distinct wheezing to Lucas's breathing that hadn't been there when they arrived on the beach.  
  
"Are you okay Lucas?" Tim asked, genuinely concerned by the teenager's pale appearance.  
  
"I am fine Tim, thanks," Lucas lied, knowing he wasn't being honest with his friend at all. He was disappointed with himself that he would once again have to admit reliance on others because of his weakness.  
  
All his life, his father had literally beat it into Lucas that weakness was for others. Lucas had come to believe that if you were in pain you hid in and you certainly never admitted it to anybody or relied on them for assistance. This asthma thing was making him turn into somebody he didn't like very much. He turned on his good friends for no good reason. He hated the idea that they felt obligated to look out for him all the time.  
  
"Kristen, Captain, I think you better come over here and take a look at Lucas," Tim now voiced. "I think his breathing is sounding very harsh," he added, trying to describe how his friend was breathing.  
  
Lucas was more frustrated with himself than his family and friends but that's not what it was sounding like now. He was now on his feet in the sand, hands on his hips in a demanding stance.  
  
"And what the hell do you know about my breathing Tim?" Lucas asked in a loud voice, but he was looking directly at the Captain and Kristen when he asked the question.  
  
"I am sorry Lucas, Miguel told us and he said to keep quiet but looking at you just now I was worried about you," Tim said apologetically as he realised he had now blown everything wide open.  
  
"And just why in world does Miguel have to know about this as well," Lucas now demanded, still looking icily at Bridger as he said the words. The pain in his chest was now becoming a lot more than noticeable and he was rubbing quite hard on the area in an attempt to massage some of the tightness away.  
Everyone now remained stoically silent as they realised that all of them had betrayed Lucas's trust about not letting anybody know about his asthma. They could all scarcely find the words to say to say how sorry they were.  
  
But pain was now driving Lucas mostly by adrenaline and he wasn't really focusing on what the crew was trying to say to him. He was only turning his attention to what his brain was telling him about nobody else supposed to be knowing.  
  
"And while we are on the subject, who else knows about me and shouldn't?" Lucas now asked.  
  
The teenager wasn't surprised at all when all his remaining friends put up their hands and voiced small yes's to his question. He had suspected that once one of them knew it wouldn't take long for the entire boat to know about his problem.  
  
"How could you tell everyone after I asked you not to?" Lucas asked, as his voice began breaking from his emotions. "Now all my friends are going to think that I am some sort of invalid that needs to have his hand held every minute of the day. That's why I didn't want to tell them myself in the first place." Once again the tightness was taking over his body and controlling almost everything he did or said. He was scared and he didn't like admitting that to anybody when he relied so much on being independent most of his life.  
  
"Lucas I think I am to blame for most of it," Ben now said as he walked closer to the teenager in an attempt to calm him down enough for Kristen to take a look at him. All in front of him could see the paleness in his face and the fine sheen of sweat that formed on his forehead. They all held off a little too late from making a dive to catch him.  
  
"We are all just worried about you," Ben tried to say, attempting to smooth over the friendship for a second time today.  
  
"Lucas you look as though you need to sit down for a minute and listen to what we have to say," Kristen said in a soothing voice, attempting to take his sleeve and calm him down. Even now she could hear his laboured breathing and knew that it wasn't making it any better by him being so agitated and upset.  
  
"I don't need any help from any of you," he now shouted and took a step back to avoid them.  
  
"Lucas, we want to help you. We are your friends. We feel.......," Ben started to say as he was cut off again before he could finished the sentence.  
  
"Feel sorry for me," Lucas now shot back at Krieg. The hurt and disappointment and shame so evident on his pale face. And with that statement he took off running along the beach in the opposite direction to his friends and family.  
  
"No that's no it Lucas....," Ben began to say in his own defence just a fraction of a second before he and the others saw the teenager take off along the beach.  
  
"Quick after him," Bridger now said to the other crew members as he had taken to running after the teenager himself.  
  
Commander Ford and Miguel did just that as well as Ben and began chasing the fleeing teenager along the beach.  
  
"We will take the car in case we need it," Kristen now shouted to the others who were quickly running towards the vehicles up on the road. Everything that was not essential was left on the sand. Lucas was now more important than anything.  
  
On the way, Katie Hitchcock used the U.E.O. communications radio to contact an ambulance on Kristen's say so. Kristen was dismayed that she hadn't picked up that the boy was unwell before now. If she had picked it up earlier, they may have been able to prevent the teenager getting so upset or taking off along the sand.  
After only a few metres along the way, both the men chasing Lucas on the sand and the others driving in the car realised that Lucas was running back towards Bridger's house. They were thankful at least that had some sort of idea where he was headed to.  
  
For somebody who wasn't supposed to over do it with the running though, Lucas proved to be more agile than Bridger and the others gave him credit for, even with the pain and tightness he was experiencing in his chest at the moment.  
  
Despite Ford's athleticism and Miguel's ability to run quite quickly, Lucas had a good head start on them all. He was now about two hundred meters ahead of them.  
  
Lucas could no longer hold in his frustrations and anger as he tried to run away from it all. And that's unfortunately exactly what he was doing. Running not just from the asthma and his friends and family, but from himself too and the fact that sometimes he needed to ask for help.  
  
Tears were streaming down his face as he stopped running and tried to grab out the inhaler in his pocket in an attempt to gain some temporary relief from the pain that was assaulting his body. He felt so incredibly tired.  
  
However, the anger in him rose again as his hands were too shaky to grab the inhaler out on the first attempt. It took two and then a third attempt to get it out. When he brought it too his mouth to try and take a puff of the medicine in side, he found his whole body shuddering too much from the running he had done and the harshness of his breathing to be able to inhale the contents effectively.  
  
In an burst of anger he threw the inhaler downwards to the sand, but unfortunately it struck a nearby group of rocks and shattered, making it unusable and irreparable.  
  
With the last of his strength rapidly running out, Lucas looked up and saw his family and friends now only a few metres away from him. The pain in his chest was too much to bear. He couldn't draw enough breath into his lungs to even shout out his frustrations.  
  
Lucas now found the strength from his legs almost gone and they gave way beneath him and he was now kneeling on the wet sand, tears of frustration streaming down his face and clutching desperately at his chest to make the pain go away. His breathing was now way passed wheezy and well onto the way to raspy and difficult to get enough air into his oxygen starved lungs.  
  
"I will beat you," Lucas shouted at the asthma as it attacked his lungs. He could scarcely find the air to string the words together in the correct order to make any sense.  
  
"Lucas," Bridger now said in alarm as he reached the distressed teenager kneeling on the sand. By now both he, Ford and Miguel were acutely aware that Lucas was in need of medical attention. There would be plenty of time for explanations later on after he was well enough. For now they had to focus on getting him to a hospital and a doctor who could help him.  
  
Bridger was truly scared by the sound of Lucas's breathing. With Kristen only just pulling up on top of the roadway above the sandy slope, it was up to him to try and coach the teenager through the breathing process until she got there. The boy's face was covered in sweat from his efforts to draw in enough air. "I'm sorry.....," Lucas managed to say in a hoarse whisper before even the effort to talk became too much. To Lucas the sky took on a hazy appearance as the blue grew fuzzy and started to spin before him.  
  
The boy was only minutes away from passing out if he couldn't begin to breathe in and out a little easier. Bridger had never felt so darn helpless or scared as he did right now. This was just the occasion they had all dreaded. Watching the struggling teenager whilst the asthma battled against him.  
  
As Kristen and Katie came running down the sandy slope towards the huddled group, the sound of a siren could be heard coming from the ocean. A U.E.O. water transport had been contacted due to being on the island. It was the quickest way to get the teenager to help without the use of roads until the mainland.  
  
"Don't worry Lucas, everything will just fine," Bridger found himself telling the teenager as they waited for the medics to arrive. "Just breathe Lucas, in and out. I am here for you. I promise I won't let anything happen to you. Just breathe," he repeated, stroking the boy's hair out of his eyes as he spoke.  
  
As he looked into those two blue eyes, his own fear was looking right back at him ......  
  
TO BE CONTINUED ............  
  
Firstly, sorry this chapter has taken so long. It's not my best effort either. I didn't think anybody was liking this story very much and this is also why I held back posting the next part up a little.  
  
I used the term 'cook out' for everybody. I am from Australia and should have used Barbeque or Barbie, but didn't think everybody would recognize the word.  
  
I didn't mean for there to be too much of a rift between Ben and Lucas. I promise it won't last for very long. I just thought I had used Commander Ford a couple of other times.  
  
It is very scary watching somebody struggle with a bad asthma attack. I remember my dad having one when I was quite young and my mother leaning over him on the floor with none of use knowing what to do to help him until the doctor arrived. (There was no hospital - it was a small town of about 600 people.)  
  
There will be more. I wrote this scene with the pictures from Sidekicks in head but thought I had better change it in a couple of places just to be different. But I love the scene where he runs away from the girl crying and then has the attack and throws his inhaler when he gets home. That's what I tried to write but it didn't quite sound the same.  
  
Keep reading lots more to come. In the next part baddie Mr Murphy from Responsibility will make his reappearance.  
  
JULES 


	5. CHAPTER 5

BREATHE  
  
The next two hours as well as the trip by water ferry and then ambulance to the hospital seemed like one long blur to Bridger. He had remembered telling Lucas back on the beach that everything would be okay. How hollow those words were now to him. He could scarcely remember a time when he felt so afraid and the fear was so evident on his face at the moment, like an open book.  
  
The ferry trip over the water had been the most disconcerting. Although they had two medics on board the vessel and they were doing their best to try and help the teenager, it wasn't a hospital that offered all the necessary equipment to cope with the situation.  
  
For the majority of the time to the mainland, Lucas had remained lying on the bed with his eyes closed. The medics had taken his temperature and blood pressure as part of the routine. An oxygen mask had been secured over the youth's face and was connected to a small portable cylinder beside the bed.  
  
Lucas didn't even have the strength at the moment to open his eyes. Every last ounce of energy he had to offer was used on the beach to battle his own body. Now that there was help close at hand, he didn't need to keep the battle on his own and quickly succumbed to overwhelming fatigue that plagued him.  
  
Most of the senior crew that had attended the cook out on the beach were now sitting together in a group on seats across from Lucas and the Captain. Kristen was helping and assisting the medics as much as possible. They were all just too stunned for words about what they had seen take place.  
  
"Do you think he is going to be okay?" Katie Hitchcock whispered to Tim O'Neill. The oxygen mask over Lucas's face only made his condition seem worse. He needed help just to do something so routine as breathing. Something all of them took for granted everyday of their lives. They were soon reminding themselves of how grateful you had to be when you were healthy.  
  
"I hope so, we should be nearing the mainland very soon," Tim answered. "Doctor Westphalen has organized for an ambulance to be waiting for us."  
  
"I thought he was just angry at something," Miguel commented, noting how one minute the teenager had been sitting seemingly peacefully on the sand watching the waves roll in. The next he was up on his feet shouting at everybody and looking less than well. After he had run away from them and collapsed.  
  
"He was really pissed that we had all blabbed about his asthma," Commander Jonathan Ford now remarked. He had rarely seen Lucas so ticked off as he had been on the beach earlier. Angry was not a side of Lucas that you saw too often and after today, Ford hoped that they didn't see it again in a hurry. It certainly wasn't a pretty sight to behold.  
  
"He's just got to be alright," Ben Krieg now said as he got up from his seat and walked towards one of the windows nearby to see how much farther they had to go. The guilt he was feeling was enormous. If he hadn't said anything to Miguel and the others then this might all have been avoided and Lucas wouldn't be hating him right now.  
  
Everyone looked sympathetically towards Krieg's back. They all knew as much as this was affecting them all, Krieg was almost as worried out of his mind as Bridger and Westphalen. Lucas was like a little brother to the man and he went to great lengths on the SeaQuest to make sure the kid was well taken care of and protected at all times. But how could you protect someone when you couldn't see the enemy he asked himself silently.  
  
Back over where Lucas was laying, the medics had done what little they could until Lucas reached the waiting ambulance and then the hospital. For now his breathing was a little better. Still quite laboured and very noisy due to the wheeziness. The mask on his face looked as though it would really get annoying after a time, but at the moment, Bridger doubted Lucas had the strength to pull it off or push it away even if he wanted to.  
  
Bridger sat on a chair beside the teenager's makeshift bed and gentle stroked the boy's head in a calming gesture. He longed to see those pale blue eyes looking back at him and smiling but he knew that the best thing for Lucas right now was sleep and that's exactly what he did, letting his body take respite and try to begin healing itself.  
  
"His blood pressure is a little low," Kristen now spoke as she stood beside the Captain with worry of her own showing. "I think that's what probably caused him to get so dizzy and collapse on the beach in addition to him having trouble taking a breathe," she explained.  
  
"Is the mask helping at all?" Bridger asked, not really having any other topic of conversation to pass the time at the moment.  
  
"Yes and no. He is mostly breathing on his own although it's very tough going at the moment. If he starts having an attack again before we get to the hospital, then at least he has got some back up pure oxygen to rely on until we get there," Kristen answered.  
  
"You mean he could have another attack before we get him to the hospital?" Bridger asked with alarm in his voice, barely able to think how Lucas could cope with another onslaught. The rest of the crew had heard the question and answer as well and they too could scarcely believe that Lucas was at genuine risk of having another attack like that one on the beach.  
  
"Yes, very much so," Kristen said grimly. She didn't want them to know all the horrific details, but she didn't see much point in sugar coating it for them either. "In fact his is at his most vulnerable at the moment as you can see. Because his lungs and respiratory system is already so weak there is every possibility that he could start having problems again. We just have to keep a very close eye on him the entire trip and I mean that," she warned with emphasis.  
  
Another few minutes and they could feel the U.E.O. water ferry slowing down as it approached the foreshore. An ambulance was indeed waiting for them in the car park a few metres ahead. It's blue and red lights were flashing but the siren had been disabled.  
  
The other members of the crew did what little they could by assisting the medics in carrying the sleeping Lucas on the stretcher to the waiting ambulance. As they made their way over the short distance, none of them could help but look down at the young man they were transporting and feel a lump arise in their throats. He looked so incredibly young and with some of the crease lines on his face erased during sleep, even more so.  
  
It was only the harsh reality of the oxygen mask over his face and the sound of his still audibly wheezy and laboured breathing that reminded them that not all was right with their young friend right at the moment.  
  
It was only Bridger and Kristen that travelled with Lucas in the back of the ambulance. The two medics from the U.E.O. water ferry didn't continue any further but were replaced by two other paramedics from the ambulance. They had been briefed on the boy's condition over the trip across the water. They again took his pulse, blood pressure and temperature, recording everything as they went for the hospital upon their arrival.  
  
The rest of the crew got into another vehicle and were only a few metres behind the ambulance in pursuit.  
  
Chaos was the order of things when they got to the hospital emergency arrival area. Two nurses came out upon the ambulance and immediately went to help the two paramedics to get Lucas and his stretcher out of the vehicle and wheel him into the Casualty Department. Kristen made sure she was with Lucas every step of the way to make sure all the necessary steps were being taken to ensure the best care possible.  
  
Kristen had already introduced herself upon exiting the ambulance and the nurses were grateful for the extra help. The Casualty Department was normally overworked already and the fact that they had an emergency patient arrive that came with his own personal doctor and didn't need the nurses constant supervision was a blessing and very welcome.  
The other crew members had arrived at the waiting area at the hospital reception but of course were told that they could not enter the emergency room. They were told they would have to take a seat and wait for news about their friend.  
  
Back in the emergency room, Kristen and Bridger were still standing protectively beside Lucas's stretcher waiting for another doctor from the hospital to tell them what was going on. It was taking an enormous amount of time, but from the looks of other people in the room right now, Lucas seemed right down the list.  
  
One patient they had seen rushed in from another ambulance a few seconds after them was covered in blood from a gunshot wound. They had overheard one of the doctor's announce him as DOA and place a sheet over his body and push him to one side of a cubicle, waiting for someone from the morgue to come and toe tag him.  
  
For the time that they were waiting, Lucas remained quite still and sleeping. Bridger didn't know if it was something to be positive or not. The boy had scarcely moved since being loaded onto the ferry from the beach and he certainly hadn't said anything or attempted to open his eyes for quite some time now.  
  
Kristen assured him that this was to be expected a little. His body had undergone a tremendous amount of stress and shock and his system's way of coping with the pain and lack of oxygen was to sleep as much as possible and allow itself time to heal.  
  
"Hello, who do we have here then?" a woman doctor approached the trio with a pleasant tone of voice. She had already been informed about Kristen being Lucas's doctor and she looked at the red-head in directing her greeting.  
  
"Lucas is a seventeen year old male. About two hours ago he had a massive asthma attack and was almost left in an unconscious state from not being able to draw in enough breath. His vital signs have been monitored every ten minutes on our way here. His pulse is a little racy and his blood pressure lower than I would like," Kristen began explaining.  
  
"I haven't administered any kind of pain relief or sedative just yet because I was already too worried about how shallow his breathing sounded. I think he is well past the point of exhaustion anyway as you can plainly see. I don't think the sleep aid will be necessary," Kristen said as she gently caressed Lucas's forearm as she spoke. Lucas wasn't even aware of her concern or fussing over him at the moment.  
  
"I am Doctor Sandra Moorecroft," the woman introduced herself. "I can see some oxygen has been administered. Let's take him out of this mess and to somewhere more quiet upstairs. I can arrange for an x-ray and for the young man to be set up on a steady course of antibiotics through an I.V.," she added.  
  
"Thank you Dr Moorecroft," Kristen said knowing that the woman had a genuinely caring attitude towards her patients. Hence the suggestion of moving Lucas to somewhere a little quieter.  
  
"I will keep him in at least over night and keep monitoring those vital signs and give time for those antibiotics to get through his system and give his immunity system a little boost," she informed the Captain and Kristen as she carefully listened to the sound of Lucas's breathing through a stethoscope.  
  
"Is Lucas under anybody else's care at the moment and what medication has he been put on recently," Dr Moorecroft asked as she went through the normal routine set of questions.  
  
"He is currently the patient of a chest specialist friend of mine Doctor John Kavanagh. Lucas was placed on 4 mls of Ventolin syrup three times a day and given a metered dose inhaler to carrying around him as a backup," Kristen answered.  
  
"Seems like he has been taking the right amount of medicine anyway. I would have prescribed the exact same dosages myself as well as the inhaler," Dr Moorecroft said agreeing with the opinion of Doctor Kavanagh.  
  
"Has he been under any extraordinary stress lately at home or at school?" Sandra asked, looking down at Lucas's young features and assuming him still to be in high school.  
  
Bridger laughed briefly as did Kristen and then went on to explain about what Lucas actually did for a living and that he was the Chief Computer Analyst aboard the SeaQuest. The doctor was almost ready not to believe a word they were saying until she looked at their faces and sensed a truth behind what they were saying.  
  
When it came to answering the question about stress lately, that was one they both baulked at for a minute and then sighed as they found themselves explaining the difficulties they had had over the last couple of months about Lucas learning about his new condition and his attempts to deal with it. As they explained, Lucas had wanted to keep everything from his friends until it got to the point were tempers were frayed, thus causing the outburst and ultimately the attack that had brought him here.  
  
Doctor Moorecroft looked at the two with understanding. "Don't worry, it's not a story I haven't heard before," she said, trying to reassure them. "We have a lot of young people about Lucas's age who find out about a new condition or illness. Believe me some of them behave exactly the same. They try and hide it for as long as possible from their friends and family but somehow it always backfires. Sometimes it's just like in Lucas's case where friends and family find out the hard way when they are hospitalised."  
  
"So how do we get them to open up to us and tell us when they are feeling poorly before something like this happens? Bridger asked searching for answers how to help Lucas deal with his problem once he left the hospital.  
  
"I wouldn't be too worried about that you know," Moorecroft replied. "Most of them get a reality check right about now when they see themselves attached to a drip and being forced to stay here overnight or so."  
  
"I sure hope your right," Bridger remarked.  
  
"Now let's get him wheeled up to a private room and get that I.V. started with the antibiotics. I'll take another look at him after that and then I can talk to you a little more after I have seen the x-rays." Moorecroft suggested.  
  
For the crew that had been sitting out in the waiting room, the time just seemed to stand still until the clock didn't look as though it was moving at all. None of them were prepared to leave their seats just yet though until they had heard about how Lucas was doing.  
  
They didn't need to wait much longer though as a bed was now wheeled out of the Emergency Department on its way to an elevator and then upstairs to a private room for Lucas. Bridger had already told the doctors and hospital to spend whatever it cost to make him well again. He also asked for the private room for Lucas, knowing the teenager would hate to be in a ward with anybody else while he wasn't feeling too great.  
  
Ben was first on his feet and stopped the orderly momentarily as he made his way to the elevator. Lucas had been transferred from the stretcher from the ambulance into a hospital bed. He still had the oxygen mask over his face attached to the oxygen canister laying beside his arm.  
  
"Whoa guy, I am just taking him upstairs, doctor's orders," the orderly stated, not knowing who Ben was. It was obvious though that the man knew the young man laying on the bed.  
  
Bridger and Kristen were quick to rescue the orderly from Ben's worry for Lucas. "It's okay Ben, the man here is just going to take Lucas to have some antibiotics and an x-ray of his chest area. After that he will be put into his own room and made a little more comfortable for the night. He is going to stay at least tonight and we will see how he is tomorrow," Kristen said as she put a hand on Krieg's shoulder.  
  
"You just look after him there Mac," Ben said addressing the orderly but his eyes still focused on the still and slightly pale figure of his friend on the bed. "He's the best and he deserves the best when he is in here," he added.  
  
"I promise to look after him," the orderly said, knowing that Ben was letting his emotions talk for him.  
  
"After we have got him settled a little, I will talk to the doctor about letting you all in to see him for a few minutes," Kristen said as the rest of the crew gathered around the bed in the middle of the hall.  
  
Bridger and the doctors left Krieg with the rest of the crew, knowing that they would make sure he was okay about Lucas. He would update them about the teenager as soon as he knew himself was the diagnosis was to be.  
  
Ben stood in the middle of the hallway with his hands deep in his pockets as he watched the orderly wheel Lucas's hospital bed toward the elevator door. He kept watching until they had entered the lift and the doors had closed again.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
Bridger and Kristen stayed with Lucas the whole time they performed the various sets of tests on him. They doubted he knew where he was if he awoke all of a sudden and they wanted to prevent him becoming agitated again and making his breathing worse again.  
  
Nathan had been fascinated by all of the equipment they used and Kristen was patient enough to explain each step for him in detail. At first they completed the chest x-rays. Both of them had to wear lead lined aprons during the procedure so they could aid in holding Lucas on the x-ray table. They had to wear the aprons to avoid themselves being harmed. A special lead lined mat was laid across Lucas's chest instead of trying to place an apron on his upper body.  
  
It was only now that Bridger began to truly understand how tired and exhausted the teenager was from his attack. The boy hadn't budged an inch when they lifted him from the bed, completed the x-ray and placed him back on the bed again.  
  
Now all they could do was wait for the report from the doctor and gone onto the next part of settling him into a private room. The room number was 32 on the floor. The room itself was quite spacious for a hospital. Lucas would have his own private bathroom facilities during his stay.  
  
Lucas was laid on the bed in the room and the two nurses present began preparations for attaching the I.V. to the teenager. They rubbed a cream into the backs of both hands to act as a numbing agent for the intended small needle that would soon follow. They had to wait about an hour for the cream to take effect. They did both hands just in case they couldn't find a vein in one and they had to use the other.  
  
While they waited for the cream to work, one of the nurses gently removed the oxygen mask from Lucas's face and replaced it with a tube attached to a control panel on the wall behind the bed. The control panel would monitor the intake of oxygen and Lucas's breathing patterns over the next few hours or however long the doctor's wanted to keep an eye on it.  
  
Lucas's regular clothes had been changed to a hospital night shirt with normal t-shirt and shorts underneath at Kristen's request She was sure that Lucas would not like to wake up with only a thin piece of cotton hiding everything important to him. He was still a teenager after all and demanded some pride. She was certain the boy would thank her for her compassion later on.  
  
Now they were ready to try to insert the I.V. They tried firstly on the left hand without success. The small needle point just wouldn't penetrate the skin enough, due to the numbing cream however, Lucas didn't feel a thing.  
  
The second try on the right hand was somewhat different. They still couldn't find the vein enough for the small needle to be inserted, but Lucas actually moaned slightly at the sting he felt despite the cream. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. They would now have to try a third time in his arm somewhere to get the I.V. working properly.  
After about half an hour, they had finally managed to get the I.V. working and the first dose of antibiotics was now dripping ever so slowly through the tube into his blood stream. The area was now splinted and bandaged and would remain like that until the doctor it okay to remove the drip and all of the antibiotics had been given to Lucas.  
  
It was only that they had Lucas totally settled and hooked up to the necessary oxygen and drip that Kristen and Bridger were able to relax slightly and sit in chairs beside the teenager's bed, watching him sleep. They had only been sitting in the chairs for a few minutes when Doctor Sandra Moorecroft entered the room quietly.  
  
"Oh I can see he's finally settled for a while," she said with a smile. She took a few seconds to inspect the I.V. and oxygen tubes to make sure they were working correctly. "You two look as though you could use a break yourselves," she added, gazing at two still very worried and tired looking people.  
  
"I am staying here the night with Lucas," Bridger now said and from the determination and tone in his voice, the doctor and Kristen knew there would be no changing his mind now.  
  
"Okay, I'll see what I can do about setting up a fold up bed in here for you tonight Captain," Dr Moorecroft said in compromise. If the man was going to stay for the night at least he could get some sleep at the same time as his young charge.  
  
"Thank you, I will organise with the rest of my crew for them to rent a hotel room for the night," Bridger said, grateful that the doctor understood a little bit about how important it was for him to be with the boy when he needed him. There wasn't much he could do medically, but he would at least be there when the boy awoke.  
  
"Well I guess you want to here what my diagnosis is," the doctor now said in a more serious voice. "Actually it's not as bad as you think. Despite how pale he looked and how much of a pounding his lungs have taken over the last few hours, they are basically okay. There is very little scarring evident from the attack, which is both promising and relieving. It means that Doctor Kavanagh's opinion that the condition was only temporary might be beginning to shows signs of being correct."  
  
Bridger couldn't help but let out the breath he was holding in a loud sigh of relief at the doctor's positive words. He now took Lucas's hand in his own whilst continuing to listen to what the doctor had to say.  
  
"I still want those antibiotics to work through his system for the rest of the night. I will take a look again at him mid-morning tomorrow and then make a more firm decision. But I can safely say that I am pleased that he is doing much better even now from when you first brought him in this evening," Moorecroft commented. "I'll go and make those arrangements Captain," the doctor now announced. "Looks like you are going to have somebody to talk to in a minute anyway," she added, noting the frequent movement of Lucas's eyelids which signalled he might awaken at any minute.  
  
"I will go and let the crew know the good news," Kristen said as she couldn't help but smile at Lucas's prognosis. "I think he will want to see you first anyway and I you two have a lot to talk about," she now said, hinting at the bond that needed to be mended between the two over Lucas's secret being revealed.  
  
"Can Lucas have a visitor tonight doctor," Bridger now asked, knowing that there was a certain someone who needed to have a heart to heart talk with the teenager almost as badly as him. That someone was Ben.  
  
"As long as it's only for a brief time and Lucas feels he is up to it," Moorecroft answered.  
  
Doctor Moorecroft and Kristen now left Lucas's hospital room to go and talk to the SeaQuest crew still waiting downstairs.  
  
******************************************************  
With the room now empty except for the two of them, Bridger waited patiently to see if Lucas was indeed showing signs of waking up. His patience was rewarded with two pale, tired looking blue eyes opening a few seconds later and staring back at him.  
  
At first those eyes held very little realisation of what had happened to him. Then as the fog began to clear slightly and recognition set in of who was sitting beside him, a faint smile appeared on his thin lips.  
  
"Hi," Lucas said in a voice barely able to be heard. He waited a few seconds before saying anything further. His mind was trying to take in stock of what was actually wrong with him. He noticed the florescent lights overhead and the medical equipment beside him. Something in the back of his head told him that he was laying in a hospital. It took a few more seconds of thought for him to remember why exactly he came to be there in the first place.  
  
"Hi yourself," Bridger replied, forcing himself not to rush Lucas. He would let the kid get used to his new surroundings first before asking too many questions or giving any explanations.  
  
Lucas now attempted to left his arm up to rub at the irritation to his nose. It was now that he became aware that his arm was bandaged and had a tube attached to it. There was also a tube coming from his nose he noted as he felt the piece of tubing travelling across his cheeks and over his ears.  
  
"Try not to move your arm around too much Lucas, there is a needle and drip there giving your body some medicine at the moment," Bridger explained as he gently laid Lucas's arm back on top of the covers, checking to see that there was no sign of blood in the I.V. tubing.  
  
Lucas was now laying back against the pillows, but his eyes were open and he seemed a little more alert if not coherent in what was being said to him.  
  
"You really had me worried you know," Bridger said with a smile to the teenager, but his words were genuine enough and heart felt.  
  
"I really messed up this time didn't I?" Lucas commented in a voice that held no emotion.  
  
"If you are talking about some people being worried about you then I would have to say yes Lucas, but other than that I don't think there is too much you need to worry about at the moment," Bridger said trying to give the boy some badly lacking self-confidence.  
  
"I didn't mean it when I shouted at Tim and Ben like that," Lucas admitted as his own guilt seemed to engulf him and the memories from the beach came flooding back at a rapid pace.  
  
"I know you didn't Lucas and I think they do too," Bridger said as he spoke on their behalf. Seeing the worried faces of the crew on the ferry and in the waiting room downstairs, it was pretty safe to say that the others wouldn't hold anything against him.  
  
Bridger could see that Lucas was tiring a little and refrained from asking the questions in too much of a rush at once. He would only ask one or two more and then leave the boy to get some rest.  
  
"I bet they are all thinking I am a great big idiot right now," Lucas said as he scolded himself for the actions he took that caused him to be in a hospital.  
  
"No they don't Lucas," Bridger said in the crew's defence. They were just concerned for you that's all. You're the youngest aboard the ship and they think it's kinda part of their job to look after and protect you when I am not around. Is that part of the reason why you didn't want to tell them about your asthma?" Bridger asked, curious to know.  
  
"Partly, but mostly it's because of just how they acted down there on the beach and back on the boat the other day. As soon as anyone knew I had something wrong with me all they wanted to do was be watching over my shoulder all the time to see if I looked sick. Even Ben did the same thing and in the end he was the worst offender. They stopped being my friends and wanted to be my nurse all the time, whether I wanted it or not," Lucas said in admission.  
Bridger now understood a little about how cramped and crowded Lucas had been feeling once the crew knew about his illness. And although he couldn't fault them for looking out for Lucas, he could see how such protectiveness would invade someone like Lucas's space after a while.  
  
Lucas was a very private person at the best of times and strongly independent despite his young age. It was these qualities that he prided himself in and when they were threatened like they had been lately, then he didn't know how else to defend himself other than to build more and more barriers between him and them.  
  
There was a knock at the door to interrupt the flow of conversation. Bridger got up and answered it to find a hospital orderly with a fold up bed in hand.  
  
"I got told to bring this to this room Sir," the man stated. "I will leave this just inside the door and bring back the linen and blankets and a couple of spare pillows."  
  
"You get a roommate for the night unless you mind?" Bridger now said to Lucas who was curiously looking at the spare bed.  
  
"No I don't mind," Lucas replied honestly. With the way he was feeling right now he was happy to have some company for a while. "Where is everybody else staying the night?" he enquired after Bridger informed him that some of the senior crew were waiting downstairs.  
  
"I asked Jonathan to arrange a hotel room for the night for them all. If it's okay with you, I might go downstairs and tell them to call it a night. It's getting late and you need some rest." Bridger said.  
  
"What about the return to duty tomorrow?" Lucas now asked, knowing that the SeaQuest was due to head out late the following day. Bridger had already told them while heading to the beach that almost all of the repairs had been completed. Those that weren't completed could be done during their two months at sea.  
  
"I think there is somebody else that would like to come and visit you tonight as well," Bridger now said, hoping the boy would be receptive.  
  
"Are you sure he's still talking to me?" Lucas asked with downcast eyes as his the harsh words he had shouted at his friend Ben echoed in his head.  
  
"He's was really scared for you on the beach Lucas," Bridger said, trying to show the teenager just how much Ben did care, harsh words or not. The minute Ben saw the pain on Lucas's face and heard his struggles to breath, the yelling and shouting were quickly forgotten about.  
  
"You wait right here and I will go and get him for you," Bridger said, getting up from his chair.  
  
"Can you do something for me before you go?" Lucas now asked in a voice that was betraying his fatigue.  
  
"Anything," Bridger responded to Lucas's yet to be answered question.  
  
"It's getting a little cold in here, can you pull the blanket up over the bed for me?" Lucas asked, the soft voice making him seem incredibly young at the moment.  
  
Bridger felt a lump rise in his throat at the feelings that he felt towards this young man. He couldn't help but give a warm smile in return, but he didn't say anything as Lucas's eyes drifted closed and didn't reopen.  
  
"Sure pal," Bridger whispered and now draped the blue woollen material up over the sheets on the bed to Lucas's shoulders and tucking it in at the sides a little.  
  
Bridger didn't know whether or not the teenager would be awake enough for Ben to talk. He made a mental note to tell Krieg when he went downstairs to quiet. If Lucas was asleep when he came to visit, the talk they needed to have could wait until tomorrow morning.  
  
**************************************************************  
  
"He was pretty much asleep again Ben when I left," Bridger said, hoping he wouldn't need to explain to the Lieutenant about the need to keeping it down when he entered Lucas's hospital room.  
  
"Thanks Captain, I really appreciate you letting me visit him before we leave for the hotel," Ben said honestly. He now went towards one of the elevators and waited for the doors to open.  
  
"Do you want me to contact Admiral Noyce Captain?" Jonathan Ford now asked after Bridger had spoken to the crew.  
  
"Yes Commander, but keep it pretty much an open issue at the moment. Depending on what Lucas's doctor's say tomorrow as to whether or not we leave on time tomorrow afternoon or leave it another day or so. It's totally up to Lucas and the doctors but either way we are not leaving here without him," he added, hoping that Jonathan would already know where he stood on the matter.  
  
The crew except for Ben, Kristen and Bridger now left the hospital bound for their hotel room and the phone call to Noyce that Ford was due to make. Kristen promised to keep them updated on Lucas's progress and contact them during the night at the hotel if it was absolutely necessary. All said they would return in the morning anyway in hope that Lucas would be somewhat better and able to have a few more visitors to his room.  
  
With Ben on his way to Lucas's room, that only left Bridger and Kristen together in the waiting room. Bridger could feel his own tiredness from the day beginning to take its tole and he ran a hand down his face, trying to wipe away some of the crease lines from worry.  
  
"Shout a lady to a cup of coffee Captain," Kristen now asked, noting that Nathan wouldn't be too far away from sleeping himself.  
  
"You lead the way," Bridger said with a sly smile on his face. A hot cup of straight black coffee sounded awfully good right about now he said to himself.  
  
Upstairs, Ben was just exiting the elevator on the floor were Lucas was. He had the room number tattooed mentally in his head and began looking at the door numbers along the corridor as he walked.  
  
When he got outside the room numbered 32, he paused for a few seconds for going in. The shutters where slightly open and Ben used the opportunity and tried peering in without Lucas realising he was there just yet.  
  
The light inside Lucas's room was dull and it much darker to see into. Nonetheless, Ben could see the bed and his friend laying on it. Lucas was as still now as he had been when he arrived. It didn't look as though much had changed over the last couple of hours that way.  
  
Ben finally sighed and knew there was no way getting around it and opened the door as quietly as he could to go in. Lucas didn't seem to hear anybody entering the room. The teenager's eyes were still closed.  
  
Ben made himself walk over to the bed, but upon looking down at his friend and all the gadgetry he was attached to, found himself trembling slightly and reaching out to grab onto the safety rail with shaky hands.  
  
"Oh Lucas, what have you done to yourself?" Ben said barely above a whisper. "Was I part of all of causing this? Did I make this happen? he asked, not thinking that his friend would be listening to his words.  
  
"No you didn't do anything Ben," came the soft reply. It took a couple of seconds for Ben to realise that his questions had been answered at first.  
  
"Lucas are you awake buddy?" Ben asked, a little surprised. "Are you alright? Do you need anything? Do I need to go an get anybody for you? Ben kept asking in a rush.  
  
"No you just need to listen to my pathetic apology," Lucas replied. His eyes still remained closed and he was not far away from falling back asleep again.  
  
"You don't need to apologize for anything Lucas. It should be apologizing for betraying your trust like that and making you runaway on the beach like you did," Ben said.  
  
"Yes I do Ben. I have been a jerk. I shouldn't have tried to hide my asthma from the rest of the crew. It was stupid and look where it has got me now," Lucas replied.  
  
"Are you going to be okay?" Ben now said lamely, knowing that Bridger had already given them a positive report about Lucas's progress. At the moment he couldn't think of much else to say to his friend.  
  
"I'll let you know in the morning," came the last reply from the teenager before sleep stole him away one more time for the night.  
  
"You just get better for me you hear?" Ben now said to Lucas, knowing the kid wouldn't be waking again for a few hours at least. "I need my number one partner if we are going back on this boat sometime during the next couple of days. I won't make it through the insanity without you there to break up the monotony.  
  
Ben gave the kid a comforting pat on his arm before leaving the room and briefly glanced at all the equipment around the bed. A pang of guilt still sat in the pit of his stomach that he had had some role at least in all of this suffering. He promised himself and his sleeping friend that he would be there in future for him no matter what.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED.  
  
Hi everyone - next chapter is done. I thought I was going have trouble with the length but somehow I put too many words in like always.  
  
I was going to have Mr Murphy come back at the end of this chapter but decided to leave it until the next part. Hopefully only two more to go and finished.  
  
The part about the Ventolin syrup comes from my own experience with a son with Asthma. The parts about the I.V. come from when my 5 year old daughter was in hospital over Easter. And the low blood pressure idea is mine because I suffer from it at times.  
  
Nothing exciting happened in this part like I was going to put in. I just kinda wanted to smooth things over between the crew and Lucas about what happened on the beach. I promise much more action at the beginning to the next chapter - and you know me - when I say action - I mean more hurt and angst Lucas of course !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Thanks for all the really great reviews so far - please keep letting me know if you are liking this story - I really look forward to receiving them.  
  
And on a personal note to Shadows of Pain - There are no sheep here to be found !!!!!!!!!! (Just Kidding - a private joke between us Aussies and Kiwis) I expect a harsh Kiwi joke about Aussies will soon be on it's way. (I couldn't help but say it when you said you were Kiwi - just comes natural to us over here).  
JULES 


	6. CHAPTER 6

BREATHE  
  
The following morning after Lucas's hospital stay overnight, back at U.E.O. headquarters, Admiral William Noyce was just being briefed on a potentially damaging situation about one of it's maximum security prisons.  
  
From the reports he had been given so far it seemed as though three prisoners had started a riot inside the prison amongst a large number of other inmates. The purpose of the distraction was to allow these three prisoners to move away from the rest of the group without being detected.  
  
Without outside help they then proceeded to escape from the security compound and ultimately the prison itself.  
  
Bill Noyce was now looking at a memo that contained the three escaped prisoner's names. One name in particular caught his attention but he didn't quite know how to approach the situation.  
  
The names appeared as follows:  
  
CARL JONES - In prison on robbery with actual violence, attempted murder x 2 FRANK WHITELEY - Assault with a deadly weapon, Robbery with violence and attempted murder WILLIAM MURPHY - Attempted murder, Kidnapping, Assault with a dangerous implement, Hostile approach of U.E.O. vessel.  
  
It was the name William Murphy that caught Noyce's attention the most. He knew about the man's previous attempts to sabotage the crew of the SeaQuest and the attempted kidnapping and stabbing with a knife of Lucas Wolenczak.  
  
The man had only served 3 months of his sentence so far. If he had escaped what was the man planning to do? Would he carrying our his further threats against Lucas and the SeaQuest crew or would he just keep running and fade into obscurity? Bill was hoping the later.  
  
The other two men with him were known associates that were also in the attempting seizing of the SeaQuest a few months ago. The reason their criminal histories appeared similar was they had also been involved in a number of bank robberies together.  
  
The biggest problem Bill faced at the moment was deciding whether to tell Nathan about the man's escape. The U.E.O. was trying to keep the prison escape under their hats for the time being or they would face a media backlash about the corruption of the correctional services department.  
  
On the other hand, Nathan Bridger was his friend of almost 30 years and he was greatly fond of Lucas too and wouldn't want to see anything awful to happen to him. Bill had spoken briefly to Commander Jonathan Ford the night before about the possible delaying time for the SeaQuest's departure that afternoon.  
  
In hind sight, Bill thought it prudent to keep the escape from Nathan and the SeaQuest crew for the time being. He had been told about Lucas's asthma attack and knew that he was still in hospital right now pending more diagnosis from the doctor's of his condition. Bridger and the rest of the crew had more important things to worry about at the moment than William Murphy and his friends. By this afternoon or tomorrow, the crew including Bridger and Lucas would be back out to sea aboard the SeaQuest, safe and secure from any threat or harm. Or so he thought.  
  
*************************************************  
Bridger had spent the very early hours of the morning talking to Jonathan Ford and making sure that the loading of supplies and equipment aboard the SeaQuest was still on schedule. They still didn't have any indication from Lucas's doctors if he would be released today and if he had any chance of travelling, but they wanted to be prepared just in case.  
  
If all went to plan, than the only loading the crew would need to worry about when they got to the harbour would be personal luggage.  
  
Lucas had still been asleep when Bridger went out to speak to Commander Ford about the arrangements. On coming back into Lucas's room with a cup of hot coffee for himself, he was a little surprised but happy to see Lucas awake.  
  
"Hi," Lucas greeted Bridger as he shuffled his way into a sitting position on the bed with plenty pillows behind his back for support and padding. "You up early I see," he began the conversation.  
  
"So are you," Bridger said in return, knowing that once they were aboard the SeaQuest again they would never see Lucas up and about at this hour of the day except when he had done an all nighter. Lucas wasn't the best morning person and usually it was lunch time before any spark of life crept into him.  
  
"Don't worry, it's not going to be a new change for me," Lucas now replied to the unspoken thoughts in Bridger's head. "I slept okay last night, but I don't think I am quite used to these different surroundings just yet," he admitted.  
  
"And I surely hope you are not planning to get too used to a place like this," Bridger poked in fun. "I never want to see you in one of these places again unless it is to visit only."  
  
"And this thing is driving me crazy with the itching," Lucas grumbled as he tried to dig a finger or two underneath the bandages around his I.V. drip and alleviate the irritation that had been present since it was put on.  
  
"You just leave that on young man," came the stern words from a smiling Kristen Westphalen followed by Doctor Sarah Moorecroft. "I don't care how much it itches, leave it alone you will have no chance of it coming off today," she warned in fun.  
  
"How are you feeling today Lucas?" Doctor Moorecroft now asked picking up Lucas's chart from the end of the bed and reading the nurse's notations from the nights monitoring.  
  
At first Kristen was sure Lucas was going to say he felt just fine so he could persuade someone to let him out. "Lucas!!!!!!!!" she said before he could even think the words, making sure she wasn't taking any kind of watered down reply from him.  
  
"Okay, I'll admit that I feel a little tired," he said after thinking carefully. "But that's about all. Other than that I do feel fine," he said as honestly as he could.  
  
"You might feel fine now Lucas, but that's because you are lying down on a bed at the moment. If you try and get up and do too much before your body will allow you to, you are likely to get very dizzy and feel light-headed," Doctor Moorecroft explained to him.  
  
"You mean I have to stay here all day?" Lucas asked with a pouted face. Thinking he was going to be bored out of his mind in that time if he was forced to stay that long in the hospital.  
  
Kristen had already explained to Doctor Moorecroft about the excellent medical facilities aboard the SeaQuest and her availability as his private doctor to administer any treatment that might be required over the next few days to a week after being released from the hospital.  
  
"If you promise to be a good boy and behave," Doctor Moorecroft said playfully as if she was talking to him in the children's ward. "I want to have a good look at you and listen to your chest. I also want one more dose of antibiotics to go through the I.V. drip. After that I might consider letting you go home in Kristen's care," she added with a smile.  
  
"I have arranged for a box of a dozen inhalers for you to take with you when you leave Lucas. I will take one out of the carton before you leave and you can keep it in your pocket like before," Moorecroft now said.  
  
"When he leaves here he is probably going to be tired for the next 24 hours or so, that's to be expected after the battering his body took. If he wants to sleep let him, it is truly the best medicine for him at the moment. I will give you a 7 day course of the antibiotics he is getting through the I.V. They will be in a medicine form this time to be taken orally with food," the doctor prescribed.  
  
"I would also resume his normal doses of Ventolin and increase the dose when you suspect he is coming down with a cold or the flu. It can work as a preventative to stop major attacks like the one he just had from occurring." I would restrict his activities for a week or so until you think he's okay to resume normal exercise Kristen," Sarah now explained. "He should also be kept reasonably warm outside. It's been a little bit windy lately and the last thing he needs right now is to catch a chill after just having an attack."  
  
"Looks like it lots of quiet time once we get back aboard the SeaQuest for you Lucas," Bridger jibed at the teenager.  
  
"Can't I just do some quiet programming or something to stop from getting bored?" Lucas now asked Doctor Moorecroft.  
  
"I don't see why now, so long as it's quiet," Sarah answered before being interrupted.  
  
"Uh I don't think so Mr Wolenczak. If memory serves me correct, your version of quiet programming is flying into a fit of anger and throwing computer components across your room when you get frustrated," Kristen reminded him.  
  
"Aaaawwwwwww but Kristen," Lucas pouted again giving her his best little innocent boy look.  
  
"I'll think about it," Kristen said with a grimace, knowing that once he started using his charm and nagging persistence, she wouldn't be able to help but give in to his demands.  
  
"Come on let's get organized here first before you make any plans for later on," Sarah now said to him and sat down on the bed beside him to start checking him over. A nurse was summonsed and injected a dose of antibiotics into I.V. drip while Lucas was being looked over.  
  
Doctor Moorecroft declared him 70% better than yesterday and left, the rest of the crew had arrived soon after and help him pass the time while he waited for the I.V. to work. A few of them looked cautiously towards the drip attached to Lucas's arm and couldn't help but feel a little pity and sympathy for their friend and what he had to endure.  
  
The crew went to great lengths to talk to Lucas just like they would have any other day aboard the boat. Some of them had to remind themselves occasionally to look back at Lucas when they were talking rather than the equipment around his room. But mostly they tried to be the friends he had wanted in the first place.  
  
Bridger had left the room for about two hours to head back to the island and make sure that he had packed all of Kristen's and Lucas's bags as well as his own before they left on tour. It was back at the house that he had contacted Admiral Bill Noyce and told him of the crew's plans to stick to the late afternoon departure time.  
  
While they were talking, Bridger had informed Bill of Lucas's improvement at the hospital. Bill never mentioned anything about William Murphy's escape from custody then either.  
  
When Bridger returned to the hospital to check on Lucas's progress, the nurses were just beginning to detach the I.V. from his arm. Firstly they undid the bandage over the top. Ben had been the only one apart from Bridger and Kristen allowed to stay. Krieg had to discreetly turn his head away though after seeing blood in the I.V. tube after the bandage was removed.  
  
It didn't take more than a few minutes after that to put a small gauze pad and tape over the injection area. No doubt there would be some bruising on the skin after a day or so but that was normal after having a drip in your arm.  
  
Bridger gave Lucas a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a warmer jacket to put on and change out of his hospital attire. Lucas had placed his inhaler in the deep pocket of the jacket so it didn't show so much like in did in his jeans pocket.  
  
"All set to go," Lucas now announced with a smile on his face about getting out of the hospital. "Whoa," though was the word that escaped his lips as he put his feet onto the ground and took the first unsteady step towards the door.  
  
"Take it easy, remember," Bridger reminded him, giving him a strong arm to use as support. He didn't want to coddle the boy in front of others but he would be there if Lucas's step faltered again.  
  
After a few more unsteady steps, by the time he got through the door and down the corridor, his balance and co-ordination was much more improved and he walked out almost normally on his own.  
  
Bridger drove the vehicle with Lucas, Kristen and Ben with him. The rest of the crew were already at the SeaQuest loading on the last of their luggage. With a little luck and time on their side, once they arrived and put their own bags in their quarters, Bridger hoped to be underway in under two hours from now.  
  
*******************************************************  
  
In a dingy motel room on the outskirts of the city, William Murphy and his partners in crime were huddled around a small table, putting together the last of their plans. They knew that the project was bigger than their last and timing in the beginning would be critical to the eventual outcome they wanted to achieve.  
  
"When is the SeaQuest due to leave?" Jones now asked Murphy. Fortunately for the trio, Murphy still had some inside contacts at U.E.O. headquarters. And it was these contacts that had all the necessary information available that he wanted.  
  
After three months of imprisonment, his ultimate goal of gaining control of the U.E.O.'s flagship remained unchanged and he was more hungrier than ever. That was the main idea behind their successful escape attempt from the maximum security prison. For days they had carefully watched the guards and their routines until they were sure they knew were each of them would be at any given time.  
  
And now as they sat around the table making plans, Murphy still wanted to get his hands on the SeaQuest. But this time he wasn't going to sneak in like when he had tried to give the crew food-poison. This time he planned for the mighty Captain Nathan Bridger to hand his ship over without it's crew on a silver plater.  
In order to achieve this goal, Murphy knew he needed one vital piece of equipment to pull off such an outrageous exercise: bait. Bait to lure the mighty SeaQuest and her crew in the first place and then bait to use to gain control of her. That bait just happened to come in the form of one seventeen year old boy named Lucas Wolenczak.  
  
Murphy had seen first hand how much the young man meant to most of the senior crew and especially to Bridger himself. He was under no false pretences that the boy would be his secret weapon to make the U.E.O. meet his demands.  
  
Of course, he knew there would be a sizeable monetary reward for the boy's safe recovery as well. Both from Bridger himself and from the U.E.O. people themselves. After working with the U.E.O. and learning of her policies and public image. He knew all he had to do was flash a picture of the captured youth to the SeaQuest crew and the rest of the world and he would have no trouble in getting exactly what he wanted.  
  
Right now he had to plan how to get his hands on the young man without to much fuss. The operation had to go down smoothly and with very little complication. There must be no errors involved and no chance of the boy's friends or family trying to intervene or prevent his kidnapping and enforced captivity.  
  
As soon as Murphy had made contact with his insider, he learned about a internal message from Captain Nathan Bridger to Admiral Bill Noyce, telling him about Lucas being hospitalised. At first he thought all his attempts would be thwarted. But then as he thought a little bit more about how this might turn out to his advantage, he then became excited at the prospect.  
  
Murphy had learned that Lucas was going to be released today by the copying of a second message from Bridger to Noyce telling him that the SeaQuest planned to leave late that afternoon as originally planned. All he had to do was hire a vehicle and gather the necessary equipment and then wait near where the boat would be loading it's crew.  
  
Murphy suspected that the senior crew would be almost the last to board the vessel. He was mostly counting on this to be in his favour. If Lucas was just released from hospital, chances were that he wasn't quite feeling one hundred percent and that also worked better for Murphy's plans.  
  
"She is due to leave at 5.00pm," Murphy answered the man. "I want us to be waiting here," he said, pointing to a place on a scale map of the U.E.O. Harbour where the SeaQuest currently lay in berth.  
  
"When do we snatch the kid?" Frank Whiteley asked. At first he hadn't seen why they needed Lucas in the first place. He knew Murphy had a personal grudge against the SeaQuest, the Captain and the boy, but he didn't see how it helped their cause to be dragging a boy around with him. It wasn't until the dollar signs that were possible were waved in front of him that he agreed with the plan.  
  
"Frank I want you here by the door, ready for Carl when he comes back. You will have to be quick and get him into the back seat before anybody can stop us." Murphy explained.  
  
"Carl, I want you to exit the car and just stand there for a few minutes, not trying to draw any unnecessary attention to yourself. Once you spot him, drag him into the car and then we can take it from there. I'll have the stuff to keep him quiet in the car if we need it. If he had been sick in hospital maybe we won't need it anyway," Murphy surmised.  
  
"What if his friends try and stop us?" Jones said now asking the obvious question.  
  
"I'll carry a piece in the front of the car. If I pull it out and put it to the kid's head warning about what might happen, they won't get too close. Then we can be in the car and away before they even take a step towards us," Murphy replied.  
  
"Let's get ready to go," Murphy now said looking at the clock. It was almost show time...  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Just as Murphy had rationalised, at about 4.00pm, two U.E.O. transports pulled up near where the SeaQuest lay at the harbour. The first car contained the black skinned man who had been at the hotel the night he tried to grab the kid last time. There was two other men with him he also vaguely recognized from the hotel.  
  
The second car contained the person he was most interested in. He saw the woman doctor get out and start unpacking bags. There was a tall skinny guy helping her. Bridger got out the driver's side door and walked around the car to the opposite side passenger door. When that door opened, out stepped Lucas Wolenczak: his bait.  
  
"Take it easy there Lucas, Ben can take most of your stuff," Bridger called out to the teenager. That left the youth with only a small back pack being carried over his shoulder. He gave the Captain a disapproving look about not being able to help carry the luggage. But when he got two more from Kristen and Krieg, he shut up and placed his sunglasses on before beginning to walk across the lawns towards the SeaQuest.  
  
There was a large expanse of lawn from the kerb were Murphy and the others were parked in their rented vehicle. There was another cemented walk way on the other side just before the boat itself. If they were going to get this right they needed to get to him before he reached the edge of the lawn and before the cemented pathway.  
  
Captain Nathan Bridger had paused halfway across the lawn to talk into his PAL communicator to Admiral Bill Noyce about their departure progress. Halfway through the conversation he paused to see Commander Jonathan Ford carrying some other equipment towards the boat. From where he was standing, the Captain could see Ford having a hard time of it. Ben and Kristen were already ahead of the Captain with the personal luggage, leaving Lucas to bring up the rear and be last in line.  
  
"Here Lucas, hold onto this please," Bridger asked and handed the PAL Communicator to the teenager. Lucas hadn't been aware of the current conversation between Nathan and Bill and without really thinking about what he was doing and mostly out of habit, put the small communicating device in the pocket of his jacket beside his asthma inhaler.  
  
With the Captain seemingly distracted momentarily helping the black guy and Lucas a few steps behind the others, Murphy spotted this as the perfect opportunity to make their move.  
  
Carl was supposed to be waiting outside the car, but that hadn't quite worked out how they had planned. Lucas hadn't been taking particular notice of any of the other vehicles in the car park. Neither had anybody else when arriving. Most had been concerned with getting on board the SeaQuest and making sure they got away pretty much on time.  
  
Frank now opened the door and got out of the vehicle, leaving the door open. Carl also got out of the car, but instead of pausing when he got out, he now began walking up quickly behind the unsuspecting teenager. Although he wanted to take the boy by surprise, he didn't want his presence spotted by someone else first and give away his position.  
  
Ben Krieg had just been walking back out of the loading bay and heading back towards the vehicles they came in to get more luggage. He could see Lucas still coming across the lawn at a some what slower pace. He knew the kid was still tired and didn't need to be in a rush. But right now, the scene in front of him made his skin crawl and go cold at what was about to happen.  
"LUCAS LOOK OUT!!!!!!!!!" Krieg shouted, almost on top of Bridger and Ford. All three turned around at Ben's yelling to see Carl Jones putting a strangle hold around Lucas's chest and begin attempting to drag the youth backwards. They could also see a car not too far behind with two other men near it. It didn't take much imagination to work out what was going on.  
  
Krieg, Ford and Bridger all began running towards the captured teen to try and stop the men from getting him to the car.  
  
Lucas had turned slightly at Ben's shouting but not quick enough before he felt the powerful arm encircle around him and begin pulling him back. He started to yell for help from his friends. He could see Ben and the Captain running towards him.  
  
"Let me go!!" Lucas demanded, trying in vain to get the man's arm to release. The man's grip was putting pressure on his still sore chest. One of the man's arms was also wrapped around the small bandaid were the drip had been, putting pressure on the injection site that was already bruised.  
  
"Owwwww, you're hurting me, let me go !!!" Lucas demanded a second time. This time his words were cut off by Carl putting a hand over his mouth to prevent him yelling for help.  
  
Carl didn't know why he was putting his hand over the boy's mouth. It was plain for all to see at the moment what was in progress. At least it shut him up he told himself.  
  
"Lucas!!!!!!," Bridger shouted, still running and trying to get to the teenager and the men. He heard the boy shouting for help before the man cut the words off by his hand.  
  
Before they got half way back to Lucas though, Carl had managed to drag Lucas close enough to the car to begin trying to push him forcibly into the back seat. Frank was also able to help subdue the kid as he struggled to get away.  
  
Murphy pulled out the gun he had brought and pointed it out of the front passenger window towards the pursuing crew members. He fired a wide warning shot but it had the desired effect as everyone trying to get to Lucas hit the dirt when they heard the gun fire in their direction.  
  
Bridger looked up from his position on the grass and looked through the window, trying to get a glimpse at the man driving the vehicle. Although he noted Carl's large size against Lucas's thinner frame, he hadn't recognised either Carl or Frank. In the back of his mind, the driver looked vaguely familiar, but only that. He couldn't put a name to him for a second.  
  
Lucas was now wedged tightly between Frank and Carl in the back seat, still trying to get free and scramble over the top of one of them towards freedom.  
  
"Here use this," Murphy said in frustration and handed Carl a white cloth with an odour emanating from it. He was angry with himself about how mussed up the operation had gone. He had wanted the boy to shout so much or to have the other guy see Carl before he pounced on the teenager.  
  
Carl briefly removed his hand from Lucas's mouth. Lucas took the opportunity to try calling to his friends and family for help again.  
  
"Caaaaapppptaaaaaaaiiiiiiin," he shouted as loud as he could through a hoarse throat before the cloth was slapped over his face, once again cutting off his voice. The cloth was soaked in chloroform.  
  
At first, Lucas tried holding his breath to prevent himself inhaling the fumes. Because of his weakened chest though, he couldn't do it for very long before the burning sensation in his chest was reignited from the lack of oxygen.  
  
When Lucas let the breath out, the fumes invaded his senses at once. Making him feeling incredibly light-headed and woozy. He tried to use his hands to get the man's hand and the cloth away from his face, but the strength in his arms and shoulders was quickly running out.  
  
The man was beginning to get anxious at the time it was taking to have effect and pressed it harder against the boy's face. Murphy had already started to drive away before Lucas fell unconscious against Carl's shoulder. The chloroform had sent him deep into a drugged induced sleep and from the amount on the cloth, he would probably sleep for quite a number of hours.  
  
Murphy drove with the windows down for a few minutes to let out any excess fumes from the vehicle.  
  
Bridger and the rest of the crew could only watch with fear in their hearts as they saw the car start to drive away. They then saw the blond head disappear from the back windscreen as the chloroform took effect and rendered him unconscious.  
  
"Lucas," Bridger all but whispered as fear began churning within him about who might have taken him and why.  
  
The rest of the crew were now beginning to stand on their feet as well, unable to believe what they had just witnessed happening to Lucas so close to them but being virtually helpless to stop it or help him in anyway.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
Bridger and the crew were now on the Bridge of the SeaQuest trying to put together a rescue plan for Lucas.  
  
Bridger's mind was going at a hundred miles an hour but he knew he had to try and remain relatively calm, despite what had happened. It was easier to say than to put into practice. Bridger felt his stomach twisting and turning at thoughts of what might be happening to the teenager right as this very minute.  
  
"Commander I want an inch by inch search of the immediate area by experienced officers. Tell them to look for anything, no matter how insignificant it might seem," Bridger ordered.  
  
"The search teams are ready and waiting for your orders Captain," Ford said trying to let Bridger know that everything that could be possibly done to find Lucas was already being put into action.  
  
"See if any of the security cameras in the parking lot have any footage of the minutes leading up to and through when Lucas was kidnapped too," Bridger now said, trying to think what might help identify the culprits and kidnappers. "We might be able to get a license plate number of the get away car or something."  
  
"Captain, Admiral Noyce is on line wanting to talk to you," Tim O'Neill now informed Nathan.  
  
"Thank you Mr O'Neill, I will take it on a secure line in my quarters," he advised, not trusting the importance of what the Admiral might say. Bridger had already informed Bill about the kidnapping and was awaiting feedback.  
  
Now in the Captain's Quarters : the conversation going on between Bridger and Noyce  
Bridger could scarcely believe what Bill had just told him about having an idea about who might have been involved in Lucas's kidnapping. Up until now there were any number of suspects Bridger could think of but none that really stuck out in his mind.  
  
"Tell me you are kidding," Bridger said, hoping his ears were deceiving him.  
  
"I am sorry Nathan, but I thought it better not to tell you about the prison escape..." Noyce began saying in his own defence before he was cut short.  
  
"Why the hell not Bill, don't Lucas and I deserve to know if there is a potential threat out there against him?" Bridger said slapping his open hand down hard on the table in front of him. He was pacing back and forth out of sheer frustration and anger.  
  
"I thought you had more important things to worry about with Lucas being in hospital Nathan," Bill said, trying to use Lucas's recent hospital stay as his scape goat. He had never really wanted to intentionally deceive his long time friend. At the time he thought it might just be a storm in a tea cup that would blow over and Murphy would be either caught or disappear before anything came of it.  
  
"You had no God damn right and you know it Bill," Bridger said pointing an accusing finger at the man's face on the screen.  
  
"Here you are trying to protect your own department's bureaucratic bungles over a prison escape that the public should be told about. But you are too worried about the internal damage control you might have to exercise if something like this leaked to the media," Bridger said still letting his anger vent on Noyce.  
  
"Like I said Nathan, I am sorry, I should have told you and Lucas at least that Murphy was out there," Bill now said apologetically.  
  
"Sorry doesn't cut it Bill. Sorry doesn't mean anything to Lucas right now who is in the hands of some crazy man trying to seek revenge on me and the SeaQuest from months ago. Sorry doesn't help me find him any sooner," Bridger said emotion creeping into his voice.  
  
"Make sure that you have every available channel open out there in case these men try and contact us about Lucas," Bridger now ordered. The events of a few months ago were now wildly running through his mind, reminding him of what injuries and emotional scars that William Murphy had inflicted upon the teenager last time they met.  
  
"I assure you that we are doing everything in my power to help you and supply the men you need Nathan," Bill said trying to make up for his monumental mistake in judgment.  
  
"Tell that to Lucas ........," Bridger shot back and terminated the connection before Bill could say anything else in his defence.  
  
**********************************************************  
  
TO BE CONTINUED..........  
  
Just to make note that the kidnapping scene may seem slightly like the one Chance wrote in one of her wonderful stories where Lucas is kidnapped coming back from leave. I contacted Chance some time ago about my idea for this story and she had no problems.  
  
Some of you might also be thinking that this kidnapping scene is somewhat similar to the one in THE SECRET DEVICE. Please believe me that they will be totally different from now on and there's a twist in that story that you hopefully won't even see coming until it happens.  
  
I am trying to update all my stories as fast a I can but time is a little strained sometimes.  
  
Hope you all continue to read and enjoy the story.  
  
Thanks for reading - please review and let me know what you think.  
JULES 


	7. CHAPTER 7

BREATHE  
  
The first thing that Lucas became aware of as he began to slowly regain consciousness was the coldness of his surroundings.  
  
At the moment his brain was too foggy to think very much of anything. It took him even quite a few seconds to work out what cold meant.  
  
The next thing he realised was that he was laying on something very flat and hard. He didn't have the energy to open his eyes and see what it was though.  
  
He went to bring his left arm across his face to rub some of the grittiness out of his eyes. It was only then that his eyes snapped open to the sound of a rattling chain and the feeling of restriction against his wrist.  
  
His left wrist was shackled with a large rough looking metal handcuff which was in turn attached to a masonry wall with a shortened chain.  
  
Lucas was shocked that somebody would restrain another human being in such a way. Being handcuffed or shackled was not exactly what he had in mind when he left the hospital.  
  
It was now that the thoughts of his friends and family back at the SeaQuest started to come back to him. Somehow he had to get out of here or at least try and let them know where he was being held captive.  
  
Lucas tried yanking on the chain a couple of times but all he seemed to get in return for his efforts was a chafed wrist. The bracket part of the crude hand cuff was at least two inches wide. Like the sort they would have used in medieval times.  
  
He tried to pull again.  
  
"You can yank it all you like kid, but you ain't going to get very far," came a voice from the other side of the room.  
  
Lucas started at the voice, unaware that somebody else had been in the room observing him. When his eyes settled on the man named Carl that he could vaguely remember being in the room. Now the man was standing there with some sort of hand held video recorder in his hand, recording every thing that had been going on. Lucas didn't quite know how long he had been standing there or just how much or what he had recorded.  
  
"Why are you keeping me here?" Lucas now asked the blatantly obvious question.  
  
"Let's just say we are making a home movie to send home to your folks," the man said as he continued filming Lucas captivity. A few more yanks on the shackle on his wrist helped to paint the picture even more.  
  
"You can't do this to me," Lucas said in frustration as the shackle still continued to chafe the skin around his wrist.  
  
"Its getting very cold in here," Lucas now voiced, trying to evoke a small amount of compassion in the man. He tried to rub at his legs to emphasis his words and show honesty in what he was saying.  
  
"Oh I am sure you're a tough kid, you can handle a little bit of cold can't you," the man said, knowing full well that Lucas had just been released from the hospital and was still recovering.  
  
Unfortunately for Lucas, he coughed at the tightness in his chest that was just beginning to re-emerge once again. He tried to hide his fear about what the cold might do to make his chest hurt all over again. He didn't like the thought that it would hurt so bad like back at the beach.  
  
"And just to make sure you do the right thing in here, once I leave here, there is a little camera way up in the corner of the room up there," Carl said pointing to the right hand corner of the ceiling. "We will be able to see your every move from up there. So no funny business."  
  
Lucas wasn't quite sure what all the charades were in filming every thing he was doing. He could only imagine it would be used to force his family and friends to give these men something.  
  
"Your going to be Mr Murphy's guest until he decides otherwise, so just do what your told," Carl said.  
  
"Murphy," Lucas whispered to himself loud enough for Carl to hear. He thought he had recognized the driver of the car when he was kidnapped. Now his memory had name to put to the face.  
  
He remembered what Murphy had done last time to the SeaQuest crew when he tried to take it over. He had outsmarted them for a while, long enough for the crew to take back control before he and his party were able to take over the vessel.  
  
The teenager remembered the man tackling him to the ground back at the jetty. He had been told by the rest of the crew about what had happened at the hotel after that when Murphy had apparently come into their room and attempted to kidnap him from their. He didn't have any recollection of the events after the man tackled him. He remembered waking up with an awful headache and a bandage around his arm where the man had tried to stab him with a knife.  
  
"I see you remember him," Carl said, not surprised that the kid had recalled his boss. They had learnt last time that the kid was pretty smart from what he had tried to fool them with on the SeaQuest. He might have been just released from hospital and might not be at full strength yet but he knew they had better keep a sharp eye on him just to be sure he stayed put.  
  
"I am going now, if you want anything just yell but nobody will probably come running anyway," Carl said with a sneer.  
  
"Can I at least have a drink of water please?" Lucas asked as his throat became very dry from the residual effects of the chloroform.  
  
"Oh don't worry, you will have all the water you want in just a little while," Carl said with mockery in his voice. "Believe me, all the water you want."  
  
By the time Carl left the room, Lucas's energy store was almost used up and he was not in any mood to play mind games with him or anybody else at the moment.  
  
Lucas now glanced around the room a little more and tried his best to take in his forced surroundings.  
  
The room appeared to be made out of large stone blocks. The stone blocks were now very stained from over the years and some of them seemed to be eroded away in places. The room looked like something out of a castle or such, hence the look of the stone walls. About five feet above Lucas there was a small barred window with no glass. The place had obviously been built as some sort of prison in the past.  
  
There was a stone curved stairway leading from the floor of the room up to a doorway, making the room lower than some of the others in the same building. It was then that images of dungeons from long ago started to creep into Lucas's mind.  
  
The hard flat surface Lucas had awoken on was a crude sort of bed carved out of similar masonry as the walls and stairs. An old woollen piece of fabric had been laid over it's surface to aid as a buffer against the coldness of the stone slab. It wasn't helping very much as Lucas felt himself shivering from time to time but it was better than laying on just the cold stone. Lucas gave in to his tiredness and laid on his side as best he could, unable to get his arm in a comfortable position due to the handcuff. He tried rapping his unrestrained arm around his chest and curl his legs up slightly in a bid to stay off the cold that seemed to be creeping into his body.  
  
Lucas now looked around the room curiously and saw the main reason why the room felt so cold. When Carl had been in the room he had smelt the unmistakable scent of salty air, signalling they were very close to the sea at least. That gave him some sort of hope that the SeaQuest would be able to at least reach him quickly enough once they knew where he was.  
  
Around the bottom of the walls of his prison cell, there seemed to be half a dozen rectangular openings where one of the stone blocks had either been left out deliberately or cut out after the wall was built. There was a similar number on the opposite wall. What they had been used for in the past Lucas didn't know.  
  
Whatever the reason, the sea breeze whistled through the openings with a cold salty air. That sea breeze was why the room felt so incredibly cold.  
The breeze was also able to blow through the window above where he lay.  
  
Lucas coughed again for the third time since Carl had left the room. He knew that the cold and dampness of the air didn't help his chest or asthma any. He tried to move his body again on the stone bed. He was thankful that they had at least left the warm jacket on him.  
  
Without realising what he was doing, Lucas put his unrestrained hand in to the pocket of his jacket. He was surprised to feel two items inside the pocket. In all that had happened over the last few hours, he had completely forgotten about putting any in his pockets.  
  
He brought the items out one at a time, the first being his asthma inhaler. He thought briefly about having a dose, but although his chest was beginning to tighten, he didn't have any idea of how long he was going to be kept prisoner. He needed to hold off using it for as long as possible until he absolutely had to.  
  
The second item he brought out, made him frown slightly as he tried to remember where he got it from. The frown quickly turned into a glimmer of hope. He remembered about the camera watching from above. He tried to use his body to the best of his ability to shield the idea from sight and hide was he was doing with it.  
  
The item was Bridger's PAL Communicator that the Captain had handed Lucas when he went to help Commander Jonathan Ford with some boxes.  
  
Maybe he could turn it on discreetly and the SeaQuest might be able to pick up on it to detect a signal coming from it and give away his whereabouts. He very quietly turned the communicator on, hoping it wouldn't make any noise so as to alert those watching on the other side of the camera.  
  
Lucas now fell asleep with hope in his heart that his family and friends would find him very soon. His body was still shivering slightly from the cold and his cough had started to become more frequent and harsher sounding as time went on.  
  
************************************  
  
AUTHOR - Sorry it's such a short piece folks - not much time to write at the moment. But I wanted to put this up to get the readers who have been enjoying the story involved a bit more.  
  
- Would you like to see Murphy and his gang killed off at the end of this  
story  
  
- Would like the Murphy and his friends to continue to a third story.  
  
I have got quite a few different ways I could go - with some really good  
plots  
for either way people want to read it.  
  
Normally I kill off the baddies by the second story or so - the exception  
is  
Lawrence. I wasn't quite ready to let the asthma thing finish at the  
end of this  
story and had an image of a scene for the beginning of a third story if  
people were willing to read it.  
  
I will let you all decide - majority will rule - I will try and make it  
interesting  
for all without disappointing anybody. If you don't want to read a  
third one  
but most others do I apologize and vice versa if you want the third one  
but  
then others want the baddies killed off - I will use the ideas I have in  
other  
stories.  
  
The hints I gave to water and so forth will be explained when people have  
decided which way to go. I will use that idea no matter which way I go.  
  
If you have any other ideas or things you would like to see in a story  
let me  
know. As long as I like it too then I will try and put it in. (Forget  
anything  
third season - never watched it - didn't exist).  
  
I still have lots of ideas of my own but though because all the readers  
review  
great each time that I would listen a little to what they want.  
  
JULES 


	8. CHAPTER 8

BREATHE  
  
The first thing that Lucas became aware of as he began to slowly regain consciousness was the coldness of his surroundings.  
  
At the moment his brain was too foggy to think very much of anything. It took him even quite a few seconds to work out what cold meant.  
  
The next thing he realised was that he was laying on something very flat and hard. He didn't have the energy to open his eyes and see what it was though.  
  
He went to bring his left arm across his face to rub some of the grittiness out of his eyes. It was only then that his eyes snapped open to the sound of a rattling chain and the feeling of restriction against his wrist.  
  
His left wrist was shackled with a large rough looking metal handcuff which was in turn attached to a masonry wall with a shortened chain.  
  
Lucas was shocked that somebody would restrain another human being in such a way. Being handcuffed or shackled was not exactly what he had in mind when he left the hospital.  
  
It was now that the thoughts of his friends and family back at the SeaQuest started to come back to him. Somehow he had to get out of here or at least try and let them know where he was being held captive.  
  
Lucas tried yanking on the chain a couple of times but all he seemed to get in return for his efforts was a chafed wrist. The bracket part of the crude hand cuff was at least two inches wide. Like the sort they would have used in medieval times.  
  
He tried to pull again.  
  
"You can yank it all you like kid, but you ain't going to get very far," came a voice from the other side of the room.  
  
Lucas started at the voice, unaware that somebody else had been in the room observing him. When his eyes settled on the man named Carl that he could vaguely remember being in the room. Now the man was standing there with some sort of hand held video recorder in his hand, recording every thing that had been going on. Lucas didn't quite know how long he had been standing there or just how much or what he had recorded.  
  
"Why are you keeping me here?" Lucas now asked the blatantly obvious question.  
  
"Let's just say we are making a home movie to send home to your folks," the man said as he continued filming Lucas captivity. A few more yanks on the shackle on his wrist helped to paint the picture even more.  
  
"You can't do this to me," Lucas said in frustration as the shackle still continued to chafe the skin around his wrist.  
  
"Its getting very cold in here," Lucas now voiced, trying to evoke a small amount of compassion in the man. He tried to rub at his legs to emphasis his words and show honesty in what he was saying.  
  
"Oh I am sure you're a tough kid, you can handle a little bit of cold can't you," the man said, knowing full well that Lucas had just been released from the hospital and was still recovering.  
  
Unfortunately for Lucas, he coughed at the tightness in his chest that was just beginning to re-emerge once again. He tried to hide his fear about what the cold might do to make his chest hurt all over again. He didn't like the thought that it would hurt so bad like back at the beach.  
  
"And just to make sure you do the right thing in here, once I leave here, there is a little camera way up in the corner of the room up there," Carl said pointing to the right hand corner of the ceiling. "We will be able to see your every move from up there. So no funny business."  
  
Lucas wasn't quite sure what all the charades were in filming every thing he was doing. He could only imagine it would be used to force his family and friends to give these men something.  
  
"Your going to be Mr Murphy's guest until he decides otherwise, so just do what your told," Carl said.  
  
"Murphy," Lucas whispered to himself loud enough for Carl to hear. He thought he had recognized the driver of the car when he was kidnapped. Now his memory had name to put to the face.  
  
He remembered what Murphy had done last time to the SeaQuest crew when he tried to take it over. He had outsmarted them for a while, long enough for the crew to take back control before he and his party were able to take over the vessel.  
  
The teenager remembered the man tackling him to the ground back at the jetty. He had been told by the rest of the crew about what had happened at the hotel after that when Murphy had apparently come into their room and attempted to kidnap him from their. He didn't have any recollection of the events after the man tackled him. He remembered waking up with an awful headache and a bandage around his arm where the man had tried to stab him with a knife.  
  
"I see you remember him," Carl said, not surprised that the kid had recalled his boss. They had learnt last time that the kid was pretty smart from what he had tried to fool them with on the SeaQuest. He might have been just released from hospital and might not be at full strength yet but he knew they had better keep a sharp eye on him just to be sure he stayed put.  
  
"I am going now, if you want anything just yell but nobody will probably come running anyway," Carl said with a sneer.  
  
"Can I at least have a drink of water please?" Lucas asked as his throat became very dry from the residual effects of the chloroform.  
  
"Oh don't worry, you will have all the water you want in just a little while," Carl said with mockery in his voice. "Believe me, all the water you want."  
  
By the time Carl left the room, Lucas's energy store was almost used up and he was not in any mood to play mind games with him or anybody else at the moment.  
  
Lucas now glanced around the room a little more and tried his best to take in his forced surroundings.  
  
The room appeared to be made out of large stone blocks. The stone blocks were now very stained from over the years and some of them seemed to be eroded away in places. The room looked like something out of a castle or such, hence the look of the stone walls.  
  
About five feet above Lucas there was a small barred window with no glass. The place had obviously been built as some sort of prison in the past.  
  
There was a stone curved stairway leading from the floor of the room up to a doorway, making the room lower than some of the others in the same building. It was then that images of dungeons from long ago started to creep into Lucas's mind.  
  
The hard flat surface Lucas had awoken on was a crude sort of bed carved out of similar masonry as the walls and stairs. An old woollen piece of fabric had been laid over it's surface to aid as a buffer against the coldness of the stone slab. It wasn't helping very much as Lucas felt himself shivering from time to time but it was better than laying on just the cold stone.  
  
Lucas gave in to his tiredness and laid on his side as best he could, unable to get his arm in a comfortable position due to the handcuff. He tried rapping his unrestrained arm around his chest and curl his legs up slightly in a bid to stay off the cold that seemed to be creeping into his body.  
  
Lucas now looked around the room curiously and saw the main reason why the room felt so cold. When Carl had been in the room he had smelt the unmistakable scent of salty air, signalling they were very close to the sea at least. That gave him some sort of hope that the SeaQuest would be able to at least reach him quickly enough once they knew where he was.  
  
Around the bottom of the walls of his prison cell, there seemed to be half a dozen rectangular openings where one of the stone blocks had either been left out deliberately or cut out after the wall was built. There was a similar number on the opposite wall. What they had been used for in the past Lucas didn't know.  
  
Whatever the reason, the sea breeze whistled through the openings with a cold salty air. That sea breeze was why the room felt so incredibly cold.  
The breeze was also able to blow through the window above where he lay.  
  
Lucas coughed again for the third time since Carl had left the room. He knew that the cold and dampness of the air didn't help his chest or asthma any. He tried to move his body again on the stone bed. He was thankful that they had at least left the warm jacket on him.  
  
Without realising what he was doing, Lucas put his unrestrained hand in to the pocket of his jacket. He was surprised to feel two items inside the pocket. In all that had happened over the last few hours, he had completely forgotten about putting any in his pockets.  
  
He brought the items out one at a time, the first being his asthma inhaler. He thought briefly about having a dose, but although his chest was beginning to tighten, he didn't have any idea of how long he was going to be kept prisoner. He needed to hold off using it for as long as possible until he absolutely had to.  
  
The second item he brought out, made him frown slightly as he tried to remember where he got it from. The frown quickly turned into a glimmer of hope. He remembered about the camera watching from above. He tried to use his body to the best of his ability to shield the idea from sight and hide was he was doing with it.  
  
The item was Bridger's PAL Communicator that the Captain had handed Lucas when he went to help Commander Jonathan Ford with some boxes.  
  
Maybe he could turn it on discreetly and the SeaQuest might be able to pick up on it to detect a signal coming from it and give away his whereabouts. He very quietly turned the communicator on, hoping it wouldn't make any noise so as to alert those watching on the other side of the camera.  
  
Lucas now fell asleep with hope in his heart that his family and friends would find him very soon. His body was still shivering slightly from the cold and his cough had started to become more frequent and harsher sounding as time went on.  
  
****************************************  
  
Back at the SeaQuest:  
  
"Here's the security video footage of the lawn areas outside and surrounding car parks Captain," Commander Ford informed Bridger as he came into the ward room. Most of the Senior Crew were currently seated there awaiting of any clues as to where the kidnappers might have taken Lucas.  
  
"Do they go right back to before we pulled up in the transports?" Bridger asked as he got up and placed the video cassette in the slot below the large screen in front of them.  
  
For the next few minutes, the crew watched in total silence as they watched themselves arrive at the harbour, unload the vehicles and then begin the process of loading their luggage aboard the SeaQuest.  
  
Most of them centred their attention on watching Lucas amble across the lawn at a slower pace than the rest of them. They all kicked themselves inwardly for not being more alert. They had been just as angry as Captain Bridger when they had learned that Murphy and his colleagues had escaped from jail.  
  
Now that Bridger had seen the footage a couple of times, he could clearly recognize the driver of the get away car as Murphy. The other two kidnappers had to be the other two that escaped from the prison with him.  
  
"Lucas didn't have much of a chance to fight that guy off did he?" Miguel commented as he noted the size and strength of Carl. "That guy is huge compared to him."  
  
"Yes and it doesn't help the situation that Lucas was only just released from hospital either," Kristen said. "Lord knows he is no condition to be carted off anywhere. His condition still needs monitoring over the next week and his strength is not anywhere near normal yet.  
  
"Did anybody notice the number plates on the car?" Tim O'Neill asked as he tried to figure out how to track down the kidnappers and Lucas. They knew who they were now at least, but they still had no way of knowing where they had taken.  
  
"I looked for that first Tim," Ford replied. "There weren't any plates on the car that I could see." knowing that it left a closed avenue for finding the kidnapper's car. They had a description of the vehicle, but it helped no one right at this time. The kidnappers could have changed cars ten times by now and there were many similar looking cars to the one they had used to drive off with Lucas inside.  
  
Before they could view the footage another time for clues - a signal from the console in front of them chirped telling them that there was an incoming video-link message.  
  
Bridger did the honours of allowing the message to be transmitted on a second large screen in the room. "Admiral Noyce," he greeted Bill Noyce, still seething about the lack of concern afforded to him or especially Lucas about Murphy's prison escape.  
  
"Nathan, I am sorry to interrupt your meeting, but the U.E.O. has just received a video tape containing images of Lucas. I haven't seen them yet myself - though you would want to be the first to see them and know what the kidnappers are demanding for his safe return," Bill now said in total seriousness.  
  
Noyce knew he had screwed up badly about not telling Nathan and Lucas and although these meagre efforts didn't make up for any of it, he was determined to help the SeaQuest crew where he could to locate and rescue the teenager as soon as possible.  
  
"Okay Bill, I guess you had better play it then," Bridger said running a hand down his face with nervousness over what they were about to see. He didn't know if he wanted to see what Murphy had done to the teenager already. He didn't know if any of the other crew members were quite prepared for it either.  
  
Without any more to say, Bill allowed the tape to begin. The tape began just before Lucas had started to regain consciousness. The crew could see the teenager laying on a hard flat looking crude bed.  
  
While they waited to see the images of him waking up, they tried to take careful note of the room he lay in for some clues as to where he might be being held. They could see the small barred window some five feet above him but due to the narrowness of the opening together with the bars obscuring their view, it wasn't possible to pick out any features on the outside that would help them identify the area.  
  
The crew now looked back to where Lucas was laying as a groan coming from his lips, signalled that he was slowly coming out of his drugged state. They watched him lift his hand up towards his eyes and rub at them in an attempt to open them.  
  
They could now hear the sound of the chain that was attached to the handcuff around his wrist. When Lucas had lifted his hand towards his face, they had been clearly able to see the restraint around his arm and attached by the chain to the wall beside him.  
  
"How can they do such a thing to him?" Ben Krieg demanded to know, scarcely able to sit at the table much longer without getting up and leaving the room in frustration. Out of all of the crew except Bridger, Ben felt the most responsible.  
  
Ben had seen what was going to happen before the guy even got his arms around Lucas but he had been too far away to prevent the teenager being dragged back towards the car. He had been too slow he said to himself as he shouldered most of the blame for not being more alert.  
  
"That is horrible to keep somebody chained up like that," Katie had to agree, her heart going out to her teenager friend who was less than aware of his surroundings at the moment.  
  
"He must have a killer headache," Miguel voiced out loud as he watched the screen to see Lucas put a hand to his head a number of times and wince at the throbbing that was present.  
  
The crew now heard the conversation between the man behind the video camera and Lucas about his force captivity. They could see Lucas pulling on the chain in an attempt to loosen the iron shackle from around his wrist.  
  
Bridger couldn't contain his angry outburst when Lucas admitted to his kidnapper that he was cold. The man had completely ignored the kid's plea for a little bit of warmth and compassion. The Captain knew that after only just being released from hospital that being cold for too long was the last thing the teenager needed.  
  
The cough that escaped his lips a few seconds later had both Kristen and Bridger very worried about what Lucas's condition might be by the time he was rescued. Their concern was written all over their faces and very real.  
  
The crew then noted everything else the kidnapper told Lucas including about the other video camera high up in the corner of the room recording his every move. They knew that they were the intended friends and family that Murphy intended to torment with his home movies of the teenager's ordeal.  
  
The comment about "all the water he wanted" was as puzzling to them as it had been to Lucas when Carl replied to his request for a drink of water. They didn't quite know what Murphy had in store for Lucas by that remark but somehow knew that Lucas wouldn't be very happy about it. Somehow they just had to be that more determined to find and rescue him before any of Murphy's plans became reality. Everyone in the ward room continued to watch the video tape of Lucas's captivity and now saw Carl behind the camera leave the room. The footage that appeared after his departure must have come from the one up in the corner of the room that Carl had pointed out earlier.  
  
"Captain Bridger," came a voice over at the end of the tape. Bridger assumed that the droll tones belonged to William Murphy.  
  
"As you can see he is being taken care of reasonably well for the time being," Murphy now said.  
  
"Reasonably," Ben cried out in anger. "He's been shackled to the wall with a chain," he said, his temper boiling over at the man's casualness of Lucas's captivity and harsh treatment.  
  
Of course the tape was pre-recorded and Murphy was unaware of the angry outburst from the Lieutenant and Lucas's best friend.  
  
"How long he remains in his current surroundings is entirely up to you and the U.E.O.," Murphy said as he began his list of demands in order to have Lucas released unharmed and go free.  
  
Bridger listen to the recording very carefully so as to hear the demands. He wasn't about to give in to a terrorist and kidnapper like Murphy but he didn't want to see Lucas's life put at any further risk either.  
  
"I want a U.E.O. launch delivered to a destination of my choosing. You will told when to make the drop off. In the mean time the young man will remain my guest. And until such time as I see that things that have been done to my satisfaction, then he will remain in his prison cell and chained to the wall as you see now," Murphy now stated.  
  
"If you choose to involve any authorities then the young man will be the one to pay for your actions and deception. I will not hesitate to have him killed should I think you have crossed me at any time Captain Bridger. I will ship his body back to you in pieces," he said ominously.  
  
Kristen and Katie Hitchcock had tears in their eyes at the man's callous words and the men in the room felt a lump rising in their throats at such cold and calculating comments. All of them felt incredibly helpless but to do as the man was demanding in order to save Lucas.  
  
Murphy stopped talking and the footage once again went back to the pictures of the prison cell and Lucas chained to the wall.  
  
Admiral Noyce promised Nathan that the U.E.O. would co-operate were possible to ensure Lucas's safety. He gave assurances to the Captain that a reply message would be forwarded to the kidnappers, telling them that the launch would be ready when they advised of the drop off time and destination.  
  
Noyce now terminated the link with the SeaQuest to carry out the return message. Bridger thought it was a little bit late for the U.E.O. to offer their full assistance now. It was like shutting the gate when the bull had already escaped. Where were they yesterday before Lucas was taken and drugged in the back of a car?  
  
The crew now watched as Lucas lay back down on the makeshift bed and tried to get as comfortable as the stone slab underneath him would allow. It was during this as they watched Lucas pull the objects out of his jacket pocket that an idea struck Tim O'Neill.  
  
"Take a look at that other tape just before Lucas gets taken," he said in an excited tone. Ben didn't know what the man was seeing right at first but if he had an idea about how to find Lucas, he was certainly willing to listen. Ben pushed a number of buttons on the console in front of him so that they could split the T.V. screen into two halves and see both tapes at the same time.  
  
The tape from the kidnappers didn't reveal too much more and they couldn't see the objects that Lucas was trying to shield with his body from his captors. Tim had a pretty good idea though what at least one of the items was.  
  
"Is this where you want it Tim?" Ben asked, trying to line up the tape exactly as O'Neill was asking.  
  
"Take it back to just before the Captain goes to help Commander Ford with those boxes," Tim now instructed Krieg.  
  
"Play it a lot slower too, frame by frame if necessary," Tim also added.  
  
"What's the point of all this Tim?" Bridger now asked as they all looked at the tape Tim was watching intently. All he could see was a slower version of what he had seen before. His patience had already run too thin today and he wasn't pleased about having to watch it all again at such a slow speed.  
  
"There it is," Tim now said with confidence in his voice as he got up from his chair and pointed to a small object being passed from Captain Bridger to Lucas. They all watched a little further to see Lucas place the item in his pocket without really taking any notice of what was handed to him.  
  
"What is it?" Miguel asked before the Captain could answer. The frame by frame images made the pixels on the screen obscure exact details of smaller items on the tape. Tim now pressed a few more buttons on the centre console until the image came back to normal speed and was a little more sharper.  
  
Captain Bridger had already guessed at what Tim had seen. "My Pal Communicator," Bridger said with and air of hope in his voice that they now had a real piece of information as to how to track down and rescue Lucas.  
  
"They give off a small electronic signal that could be detected and followed to a source," Tim said, explaining just how the communicator would help.  
  
"Get on it right now Lieutenant," Bridger now said, anxious to see if their theory was right. Tim scurried off towards the Bridge to try and get a fix on the communicator. Of course he knew that the communicator would need to be working to allow him to get a fixed position. That's were the other crew members in the ward room came into play.  
  
"Commander Ford, get a rescue team together and be ready to move at a moment's notice," Bridger now said to his second in command.  
  
"Yes Sir," Ford said determined to make sure that such a team was ready when Captain Bridger gave the command.  
  
"The rest of us have another important job too," Bridger informed the others left in the Ward Room. He hadn't forgotten that Tim would firstly need a signal from the communicator to be able to pick up the frequency that it would emit. They would have to try and assure that there was a constant and continual signal for as longer as possible.  
  
Bridger now got another pal communicator so that he could try and contact the one Lucas was shielding inside his jacket pocket. By now the footage on the tape from the kidnappers had finished and there was nothing but a static filled screen left for them to see. They could no longer see what was happening to Lucas inside his temporary prison.  
  
Bridger now tried to get Lucas's attention through the communicator. He knew he would have to warn the teenager to keep his voice low and his actions restricted if they were to avoid the camera above him realising what was happening.  
  
"Lucas," Bridger whispered into the small device. "Lucas can you hear me?" he now asked.  
  
Lucas had fallen into a troubled sleep shortly after Carl had left the room. The residual effects of the chloroform and his own weakness was just too overwhelming and his body now demanded some sort of respite.  
  
At first Lucas thought he must have been dreaming the fact that he could hear Bridger's voice. It was definitely something he wanted to hear more than anything, but he seriously thought his brain was playing tricks on him.  
  
On the second attempt from Bridger, Lucas opened his eyes, thinking that if it was a dream, it was being particularly persistent about calling out his name. Once he opened his eyes, he could see that the pal communicator was indeed talking to him. He could scarcely believe his luck.  
  
He briefly tried turning his head on an awkward angle and looking warily back towards the camera in the corner of the room. He too realised like the Captain that he couldn't afford to give away the fact that he was making some sort of contact with the outside world so as to alert them to his current whereabouts.  
  
"Captain....." Lucas whispered, his voice a little hoarse and barely audible to the crew listening on the other side.  
  
"Lucas is that you, oh thank God," Bridger said in a small pang of relief. At least they had made contact with the missing teenager. "Are you okay? Don't worry we are on our way to get you out of there," he added, blurting out the words all at once. He caught himself briefly making sure that his voice remained very quiet.  
  
"Hi Captain," Lucas now said, trying to keep his composure. "I am okay, for the time being but please come and get me soon, its very cold in here," he added, noticing his body beginning to shiver again from the coolness of the room.  
  
"What are you going to do?" Lucas now asked, wanting to know if there was anything he was expected to do while he waited to be rescued.  
  
"We are trying to get a fix on your position by using the communicator frequency. Keep it on if you can without being caught. Try not to let them know you have got it if you can, pretend to go to sleep or something or at least try and act as though you are," Bridger said.  
  
"I don't think I have to fake that somehow," Lucas said as he began coughing again for a few seconds. "I feel down right lousy at the moment Captain," the teenager admitted.  
  
"Just hang in there a little longer Lucas. I promise you we are coming just as soon as we can," Bridger said trying to reassure the boy. He could see an unasked question on Kristen's lips as he looked across the other side of the table.  
  
"Do you still have your asthma inhaler with you Lucas?" Bridger asked for Kristen. Westphalen smiled her thanks back to the Captain for his intuitiveness.  
  
"Yes," Lucas replied. It was plain to hear from his voice that the boy was quickly tiring again.  
  
"Come soon please......," he said as his words faded away and his eyes began slowly drifting closed again. His hand was still wrapped limply around the Pal Communicator.  
  
"Lucas?" Bridger whispered gently wondering if the kid was still awake or not. When he got no reply he knew that sleep had stole him away temporarily. He wasn't about to wake the kid up again when he knew that Lucas needed rest so badly. He just hoped he could keep  
the communication line open long enough for Tim to get a fix.  
  
Tim O'Neill came back into the Ward Room with the details of his tracking,, "I think I have a location Sir," the man said with both hope and fear in his voice. "The signal is quite weak, it took longer than I thought to try and work out where it was coming from. On my estimates it will take about an hour to get there if we go fast,"  
  
"You heard him Commander, full speed please according to the co-ordinates he gives you," Bridger said with a sparkle in his eye. They were on their way. He said a silent prayer that Lucas would be able to wait that hour until they got there.  
  
"The team is prepared and ready to go," Ford now advised, providing details of the planned rescue that he had been making when he left the Ward room. Ford now headed out the door with Tim O'Neill ready to get underway as fast as they could.  
  
Bridger and the rest of the crew had thought Lucas was asleep for the time being. Their beliefs were quickly shattered by the sound of Lucas's voice coming through in a scream at something dreadfully wrong happening.  
  
"Lucas what's wrong?" Bridger shouted down the communicator. By the sound of fright in Lucas's voice, he knew it was no time to be tip-toeing around. "Lucas?"  
  
"The whole room is filling up with water Captain," Lucas shouted back, sounding a little bit away from the communicator. "The tide is coming into the room and it's filling up with water." He couldn't emphasis how scared he was right at the moment.  
  
"Commander Ford make that full speed much faster right now," Bridger now ordered to the Bridge. "Lucas is in grave danger."  
  
A few minutes earlier in Lucas's prison cell, the teenager had been asleep just at the crew assumed. His fitful doze was quickly disturbed by the sound of water gushing in through the openings along both sides of the room.  
  
Lucas had jumped up in a start and was now standing on the stone slab in an effort to stop the water from approaching him and getting to high. He still had the Pal Communicator clutched tightly in his hand.  
  
He was almost squeezing the life out of it due to his fear of how high the water might rise. He couldn't help but think he had been in a similar situation some time ago. He remembered then how high the water had gotten and how he had just made it out alive in time.  
  
The tide had changed and there was nothing Lucas could do to stop the water from coming in. At the moment is was still only about a foot deep in the room but he knew that the room would soon start to fill rapidly. He didn't know how high the tide would rise. How long did it take someone to drown? "Captain the water is rising," Lucas said in a panicked voice. The water was now lapping at the top of the stone slab and threatening to soon submerge his shoes and feet.  
  
Bridger already had his thoughts go back to the other time that Lucas was remembering. That time the teenager had been taken and held as hostage amongst a group of international delegates in a room that was hidden underneath an island resort. They had managed to find them and rescue everyone, but he remembered how scared Lucas had been to go near any sort of water for some time to come after that ordeal.  
  
Above in a room watching the whole event unfold before him. He had known exactly what time the tide would start to fill the room. He knew that the kid was in no real danger of drowning. Mostly due to the fact that the water wouldn't get to the ceiling of the prison cell due to the window half way up. Once the water reached that height, it would soon drain away just as quickly through the bars back down the rocks to where it had come from.  
  
Carl had been busy watching the screens in front of him and listening for any approaching objects. He had also been listening to some communications about the area and had been able to pick up on the fact that the SeaQuest was heading their way very quickly.  
  
"Boss, the SeaQuest is one her way here," Carl informed Murphy as he continued to listen. "They are still about an hour out, plenty of time for us to get the kid and make a break for it out of here," he added, trying to tell Murphy that it wasn't a lost cause just yet.  
  
Murphy was still fixated on watching the scenes from the prison cell and seeing the teenager squirm even more the higher the water started to get. He had heard the man beside him say that SeaQuest was on her way. That wasn't totally unexpected. In fact he had factored it into the equation that the Captain would be astute enough to figure out where they were eventually.  
  
"How did they find out so quickly?" he said out loud. Although he was expecting them, he hadn't thought they would be there just yet.  
  
"That's why, damn a communicator of some description," Murphy now roared with disgust as he continued to watch the frightened teenager. It was only now that he realised the kid had something gripped tightly between his fingers. Upon closer inspection he could see that the object was the thing that had caused the SeaQuest to find them just that bit too early.  
  
"Why didn't you check what he was carrying on him?" Murphy now demanded of Frank and Carl in the room. "Now they know where we are because you failed to do your job properly," he barked.  
  
"The tide should turn again before they get here," Frank said, hoping to lessen Murphy's wrath. "Should be enough time to get him out of here before they come ashore to rescue him."  
  
Although Murphy wasn't particularly happy about it, he knew he would be forced until the tide subsided somewhat to allow them access to the room again and get to the kid. If they tried to open the door now they would flood the entire building.  
  
Murphy promised himself that he would be ready by the time the infamous Captain Bridger got there. He would be sure to leave a reminder to the Captain of what happened when things didn't go according to his carefully laid plans. The kid would have to pay somewhere along the way.  
  
"C-Captain, i-it's very cold in h-here," Lucas said through chattering teeth as the water was now about waist deep. His body from his legs down felt totally numb from the impenetrable cold from the water.  
  
"I know your cold Lucas, I promise we are only a little way out. You need to hold on just a little bit longer." Bridger said trying to keep the kid somewhat alert.  
  
"I don't know how much longer I can stand up in this water," Lucas admitted, the strength in his legs draining out from the cold. The chain around his wrist was beginning to pull as the chain stretched to its limit.  
  
"P-Please come get m-me out of h-here," Lucas begged through still chattering teeth.  
  
The pain in Bridger's heart when he heard the pleas was almost too much to bear. He couldn't stand to here such torment coming from the one person he loved like a son.  
  
"We will be there in less than half an hour," Ford said to Bridger, trying to give his Captain some sort of hope to hold onto.  
  
Back at the prison cell, the tide had begun to turn and the water level drop just like Frank said it would to Murphy.  
  
By the time the three kidnappers entered to the room, the water was back to being only a foot deep again. Lucas had collapsed onto the stone slab, and he lay in a trembling, limp and unconscious. His strength was totally spent and the cold had made him very lethargic and tired. The constant coughing had made him exhausted. His legs had been trembling both from the cold and the overwhelming sense of fatigue he had from being forced to stand up so long in the cold water.  
  
When the water level had dropped enough so that he was safe from the threat of drowning, he had collapsed into the heap that could be seen now.  
  
"I don't think we need to worry about giving him anything this time," Murphy signalled as he turned the teenager over slightly and started going through the kid's jacket pocket to find out what other things he had on him.  
  
"He looks pretty much out of it doesn't he," Frank had to admit.  
  
To be perfectly honest, the kid looked like death warmed over. They could see a touch of a bluish tint to this pale lips, signalling just how cold the teenager was. His breathing was sounding very harsh and the clothes he wore were now soaked and hanging onto his thin frame.  
  
Murphy grabbed the Pal Communicator from the teenager. It had fallen beside his body when he collapsed. Murphy doubted it was of much use to anybody now since being waterlogged. The SeaQuest were hardly going to be able to get a signal now. But they again he didn't think they would need to rely on it now. The SeaQuest was already heading full steam towards them.  
  
"You won't be needing this either kid," Murphy said to the unconscious teenager as he took out the inhaler from his jacket. Just then a idea struck him as to what sort of message to leave Captain Bridger when he and his rescue team got there.  
  
Carl now picked up the kid's limp body at Murphy's request and the four of them prepared to leave their temporary hide out in search of a much more secluded hiding place. The place Murphy had in store was totally different. He was sure that the SeaQuest wouldn't find that place no matter how hard they tried.  
  
Ten minutes after the hour Commander Ford said it would take to get there, the SeaQuest came to the place they knew Lucas was being held. At some point they had lost the signal from the Pal Communicator but Bridger assumed that was because it got wet as the water level in the room rose.  
  
Bridger of course made sure that he was part of the final number to go in for the rescue. Doctor Kristen Westphalen also accompanied them in case her medical skills were needed for the teenager. Ben was part of the team as was Miguel. Tim O'Neill and Commander Ford opted to stay behind in case they were needed in another capacity.  
  
It took a couple of minutes once inside the derelict building to find the room they thought might be the one to hold Lucas. They had already tried a couple of rooms higher up in the building but had been disappointed to find them empty and falling apart around them.  
  
As they went further into the building, they came to a door that seemed to lead to a room lower than the others in the building. Hence the threat of being inundated by the surge of tidal waters.  
  
Ben and a couple of the rescue team now began trying to batter down the door with renewed vigour and hope that Lucas might be on the other side.  
  
Finally the door's hinges gave way to the constant hammering and the door fell open to reveal the room the crew had seen on the video tape. It was definitely the right room. From where they stood at the top of the stairs, they could see the barred window they had identified on the tape.  
  
They could also see the stone slab Lucas had been forced to use as a bed during his time of captivity. The sight that made their hearts drop though was that the chain and shackle were hanging down from the wall with no sign of Lucas anywhere.  
  
No matter which corner of the room they scanned, there was no sign of the kidnappers or the missing teenager they had come to rescue.  
  
Bridger stopped when he saw something laying on the floor in the middle of the room. He hurried down the stairs and knelt in front of the pile of what looked like broken pieces of something.  
  
To add to his sense of helplessness in finding and rescuing Lucas, he could see that the broken pieces had once belonged to the Pal Communicator . He picked up a second piece of broken plastic and quickly saw to his horror that it had once made up Lucas's asthma inhaler. Now it was broken in to four of five pieces like a jig saw puzzle.  
  
Lucas was now somewhere in the hands of people who were ruthless enough to leaved him without his necessary medication.  
  
The other crew members stood by with fear and anger also written across their faces but they couldn't find the words to make this scene seem any better.  
  
"Damn it," Bridger shouted out loud and hurled the small broken piece of plastic across the other side of the room.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED...............  
  
Hi folks, updated again - I reposted the first part of the last chapter with this part because I thought it helped the story flow better.  
  
As to what is going to happen at the end .... well the votes are in but I am not telling you just yet....... I think I have found a way to incorporate most people's ideas and suggestions.  
  
I always loved the episode with the dome filling up with water - just wished something more would have happened in that one. That's what gave me the idea for this - it wasn't hard to guess what I was going to do with the water.  
  
Sorry but some time is going to have to be put into my other fandom - time to go and do some Joe hurt scenes or Jules is going to be hunted down by a posse of angry readers.  
  
Nearly finished this story.........  
  
JULES 


	9. CHAPTER 9

BREATHE  
  
Carl and Frank together carried the still very limp and unconscious form of Lucas through the cramped space along the long narrow passageway.  
  
William Murphy's escape plan involved the use of an old designed submarine. If he had any chance of trying to win against the SeaQuest, he firstly would need to meet her on the same level and that was under the ocean.  
  
After years and years of supply contacts, it hadn't been too difficult for him to find himself a used, but still fully operational submarine. It had all of the relevant electronic equipment they would need and was even armed to a certain degree with small, but effective torpedos.  
  
"Just put him over there," Murphy said as he briefly glanced up from the maps he had sprawled across a table in the centre of the submarine's main control room. He didn't have the time to waste at the moment on where they put his hostage. He would become more important later on in the scheme of things.  
  
Carl and Frank lay the inert teenager on a long plastic seat that butted up against one of the hulled walls of the submarine. The kid still wore the same wet clothes he had on when they had taken him from the other prison cell.  
  
Although the bluish tinge was now not so apparent to the naked eye, it was still very obvious about how cold the kid was. He was still shivering violently even as they had carried him into the  
submarine. Even now in a virtual state of unconsciousness, the teenager was trying to huddle his body against the chill.  
  
Lucas's hands had been freed from the iron shackle from earlier, but were now bound by thick, coarse ropes. Murphy wasn't taking any chances with his prize catch. Sick or not the kid wasn't leaving anytime soon. Lucas's legs were left unbound for the time being.  
  
"What's the plan now Boss?" Frank asked as he and Carl gathered around the small table with Murphy to plot what they intended to do.  
  
"I want you to try and see if you can raise the SeaQuest," Murphy now instructed Frank. "It's time we let Captain Bridger and the others know that we mean business. Besides I want to make sure he gets a good look at our young hostage over there too."  
  
"What are you planning to do with him?" Frank asked, a little nervousness betraying him. When he had signed on this idea with Murphy all he had been promised at the very beginning was a lot of cash. He wasn't in this for the glory of being called a kidnapper or terrorist. He certainly wasn't in this for whatever Murphy's depraved mind had in store for the kid.  
  
Personally Frank saw the kid as more of a burden that a hostage or bargaining chip. He had begun to feel slightly guilty at the torment they were forcing upon the youth when he saw Lucas laying on the cold hard cement floor, dripping wet. He didn't have any feelings either way for the kid, but he didn't like to think that the kid was just going to be killed for the sake of killing him.  
  
"What I am planning to do with him is no concern of your at the moment," Murphy said a little perturbed that he was being questioned by one of his own men. "For now just do what you are told and contact the SeaQuest," he repeated, looking back down at the maps in front of him and ignoring any response.  
  
Frank went towards the front of the submarine in readiness to make contact with the SeaQuest like he was being asked to do. He muttered to himself as he went and looked up just in time to see the same doubts and questions in Carl's eyes. Both of them wanted out but would have to wait until all of this was over. Then both of them would be looking towards south of the border away from prosecution and leaving Murphy in his own little world.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
Back on board the SeaQuest, Bridger and the rescue team had returned to the vessel with the look of disappointment and failure on their faces. They couldn't help but feel that they had let Lucas down.  
  
They had almost made it to him in time only to get there and realise that the youth had been taken away from them again against his will. Now the search became even more desperate as they realised the implications of the boy's strength and health already wanning badly.  
  
Now he was also without his medication and at a risk of becoming even more sicker. If he did have an attack at any time now, Bridger was certain that they could rely on Murphy and his men not to help Lucas at all.  
  
"We will do everything possible to get him back," Commander Ford said to Bridger as he slumped in his chair in the middle of the room. Everyone else was at their posts as well, waiting for the signal for what they could do next to help find Lucas.  
  
"Thanks Jonathan," Bridger replied as he put his hand over his chin and tried to think. It wasn't that he didn't believe the words were genuine. He knew there were quite a number of people in this room right now that were just as upset about Lucas's kidnapping as he was.  
  
The difference was they he was carrying all their worry as well as his own. He was the one who felt the guiltiest. He had promised Lucas he would be there shortly to rescue him but then when they got their his promise had been blown full of holes.  
  
Bridger's train of thought was quickly interrupted by Lieutenant O'Neill's voice at the communications station.  
  
"Captain, I have a someone trying to contact the SeaQuest through an unsecured channel," Tim announced. "Could be Lucas's kidnappers, do you want me to patch them through?"  
  
"Let them come through Mr O'Neill," Bridger replied as he pulled himself up in the chair and tried to regain some sort of composure and the look of somebody who was in command rather than falling apart at the seams inside.  
  
"Captain Bridger," Murphy's voice came over the speaker. "Can't say it is a pleasure seeing you or any of your crew again. I assume you know why I have contacted you. I believe I have something that may belong to you."  
  
Before Bridger could reply to the sarcastic overtones of the introduction, Murphy now had the picture inside his vessel altered so that the SeaQuest crew could view the unconscious teenager on the seat along the wall.  
  
From the outlay that he could see in front of him, Bridger was fairly sure that Murphy and his gang had taken Lucas onto another smaller submarine. That made trying to rescue the boy that much more difficult.  
  
Bridger didn't say anything. He just continued to drink in the sight before him of Lucas. The boy was obviously still alive. From time to time he could see slightly twitches in the boy's body.  
  
If Lucas could hear the conversation between the two parties, he didn't give any indication of being able to. He eyes remained closed and he was still in the same curled up position he had drawn himself up into.  
  
"What do you want Murphy?" Bridger demanded, not wanting to waste any more time than was necessary on the man.  
  
"I like a man who is direct Captain," Murphy said with a grin. "Okay, what I want is for you to allow me aboard your vessel," he said simply.  
  
Commander Ford just about fell over backwards at the man's request. He knew that the man didn't want to come aboard to swap cookie recipes. He looked directly at Captain Bridger, wanting to make sure that there was no real truth to what he was asking to do.  
  
"Is that all?" Bridger said, trying to display the same level of casualness and lack of emotion of Murphy.  
  
"When I get there you will instruct your crew to take me and my men to a destination of our choosing. If you do everything that I ask and co- operate as I know you must, then the boy will remain alive," Murphy now stated.  
  
"And if I refuse?" Bridger asked, already guessing at what such a refusal meant for Lucas.  
  
Murphy grinned slightly at Bridger's question but then proceeded to walk over to where the boy was lying. Murphy now lifted Lucas's head up by a hand full of his blond hair and held a ominous looking serrated edged knife just under the teenager's chin.  
  
"The choice is yours Captain," Murphy said, not needing to elaborated any further. The knife and the frightened boy's expression should be enough to convince he and the rest of the crew about the consequences of not complying.  
  
Lucas had been startled back to some form of consciousness from the painful grasp of his hair. His eyes were open but unfocused and took on a glazed and opaque colour rather than the usual bright blue colour.  
  
"C-Captain," came the hoarse words through the boy's lips as he battled his fear at the knife point he felt to his skin. He looked at the video-screen where he could see Bridger looking back at him. He didn't quite know exactly where he was or how he got there.  
  
"Everything will be alright Lucas," Bridger said as he saw the look of confusion and fear on the boy's pale face. He didn't know if the boy heard the words or not or understood them but he was determined not to let the teenager down a third time.  
  
"That depends on you Captain," Murphy said as he let go of the boy's hair and walked back to the table spread with maps.  
  
In the back ground, Kristen kept her vigil on Lucas. The teenager was at least sitting up now and rubbing at the top of his head where the hair had been yanked. The soothing action was made that much more difficult with his bound hands.  
  
Whilst he rubbed, he couldn't help but cough harshly at the itch in his chest. He cupped his two hands over his mouth as the coughing continued for a few seconds. By the time it eased, his face had taken on some reddish colour in his cheeks. He briefly leaned back against the wall of the submarine, trying to slow and catch his breath. His breathing was sounding very wheezy and harsh.  
  
Lucas decided that if he was going to get out of this situation, part of it would need to come from him. Bridger and the others were aboard the SeaQuest and although he could see them and knew they would be trying very hard to rescue him. There was very little they could do on the other side of a video-screen.  
  
Lucas shifted his legs slightly as he sat up and instantly regretted it as the ache in them from the cold made them ache even more. He gritted his teeth though and tried not to move around too much in order to give away what he was doing.  
  
Frank and Carl had looked over his way once during the conversation between Murphy and Bridger, but could see the pained expression on the boy's face and hear the harshness of his coughing and breathing. They didn't think the teenager was feeling much like escaping at the moment.  
  
"Try and divert their attention to give Lucas some time to look around where he is," Kristen now whispered to Bridger, carefully so as not to alert Murphy to what was happening aboard his own vessel.  
  
Lucas now looked down the corridor that he had been carried along earlier. Although there didn't seem to be anyway out immediately. When he stopped and looked long enough, right down the far end, past the entry hatchway, there was another hatchway. On the outside of the door, the words ESCAPE POD were written in yellow letters.  
  
Lucas looked back into the room where he was, trying not to get too excited about what he had just seen. He couldn't afford to get too complacent. His body was telling him that he would be flat out travelling more than a few steps while his mind was ticking over and telling him that there was only about 20 metres to possible way out.  
  
A slight almost undetectable nod from Lucas to Kristen told the doctor that he had seen something that might help him. Again she was careful not to get too excited and give away his secret.  
  
Lucas now coughed again as the itch in his chest became more of a burning sensation. He put his hands to his mouth again but as he did so, he made a crude but unusual gesture with his hands. It looked as though he was moving them from side to side.  
  
Kristen wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She could see Lucas was trying to tell them something. She now had Commander Ford look intently at his hands and they both waited for him to repeat the action.  
  
Murphy glanced back towards the teenager as he cough another time, but Lucas had enough nous to know he needed to wait a little longer before trying to signal the crew again.  
  
"What is it that you and your organisation wants?" Bridger now asked Murphy as he tried to buy Lucas a little more time and freedom to concoct his escape plan.  
  
Murphy looked piercingly at Bridger in response to the question to make sure the man wasn't trying to trick him. Bridger's stoic look and lack of emotion helped convince him that the man couldn't do too much to rescue the boy from where he was at the moment. If there was any attempt to come aboard his vessel, Murphy would know about it quickly enough.  
  
Frank and Carl were a little too occupied in keeping their attention on the electronic panels in front of them to notice Lucas moving around or trying to signal the SeaQuest crew.  
  
Tim O'Neill had been looking at the video screen trying to work out what type of submarine Lucas was being held on. "That submarine looks like an old Russian type known as a Foxtrot," the Lieutenant now informed them. "If it is a Russian Foxtrot, then back in the days of World War 2 most of those submarines had escape pods built into them so that the crew could escape before they sank or were blown apart."  
  
"I think Lucas is trying to tell us that he wants a diversion of some sort," Kristen said, a little doubtful that she was getting the full message from the teenager. "His hands are moving side to side like in a rocking motion."  
  
"Commander is there some way we could fire a small projectile at the front of that submarine so that Lucas can make his way towards the other end. He keeps looking towards the end we can't see, but I assume he is thinking of a way out."  
  
"Does Lucas know how to operate such an escape pod if there is one there?" Ben Krieg now voiced as he grew anxious about any escape attempt his young friend might have.  
  
"They are pretty easy to operate Ben," Tim now said, trying to dispel any fears. "The pods are only big enough for three people and they are fairly safe. There should be a lever on the main console once he is inside that allows the pod to break away from the rest of the sub."  
  
Bridger had been discreetly warned of what the rest of the crew and Lucas had in mind. He wasn't happy about the idea and thought of telling them that there would be another chance to get Lucas by safer means.  
  
At the end of the day though, he couldn't be sure that there would even be another chance of a rescue let alone a safer one. They had to get Lucas away from that man now. His health was rapidly becoming worse and if they left it too long, Lucas might not have the strength to make it to any such escape pod.  
  
Lucas began coughing harshly again just to emphasis the fact that he wasn't feeling too great again. He was cold and no matter now much he tried to focus inwardly, his body couldn't make the heat needed to warm him. He rubbed his bound hands together, trying to get some manipulation and circulation back through his fingers.  
  
Bridger had given the signal to Miguel Ortiz to try and get a target lock onto the very front of the smaller submarine. They had to make sure that the hit was accurate enough to put Murphy and his men off long enough for Lucas to escape but be small enough to prevent the whole vessel from blowing up with Lucas in it.  
  
"You know I could just use SeaQuest to blast you out of the water," Bridger now warned Murphy.  
  
"You wouldn't dare Captain," Murphy shot back, safe in the knowledge that as long as the boy was being held aboard, Bridger wouldn't be so foolish as to put his life in danger by trying to bring them down with weapons.  
  
Frank and Carl had overheard the Captain's deadly ultimatum and now grew fearful for their own lives. Murphy didn't give a damn about what happened to all of them. He was willing to sacrifice himself and everyone else just to prove a point and support his stupid cause.  
  
"Target lock on Captain," Miguel now said, loud enough for Murphy and his men to hear also.  
  
"You wouldn't dare....." Murphy hissed once again, making sure that Bridger was able to get a good look as who his hostage was.  
  
Lucas couldn't hide the fact that he was scared right now. He hands were trembling from fear as well as the cold at the moment. Although he knew the crew would do everything they could to prevent something going wrong, there were no guarantees and if the SeaQuest fired of course, then there would be no need to a rescue of any sort.  
  
"Let's just see how much you are willing to risk his life Captain," Murphy hissed. "Frank get set to send us to the bottom," he now ordered.  
  
"To the bottom?" Frank asked as his own fear about what Murphy proposed started to rise. "You can't be serious?"  
  
"I am serious, to the bottom I said," Murphy said through clenched teeth as he looked back towards Bridger. Murphy walked over to in front of Frank and make the necessary adjustments on the dials to make the submarine begin descending.  
  
Frank and Carl were now both on their feet voicing their opposition to what Murphy proposed to do. Murphy's attention was taken away from Bridger temporarily as he tried to convince the two men that it was only a scare tactic for Bridger and they wouldn't get anywhere near that deep before the Captain gave in and let them aboard just to save the kid's life.  
  
"Captain, Russian Foxtrot's have a maximum crush depth of only 800 feet," Tim O'Neill now said with real concern in his voice. If Murphy did indeed take the submarine past that depth then Lucas would be in real trouble whether he got into the escape pod or not. The escape pod itself would only be able to withstand a depth of 100 feet before it too would be crushed.  
  
Bridger waved his hand towards Tim, telling him that he knew what the threat meant to Lucas. He now motioned for Miguel to get ready to strike the rogue submarine before Murphy could get much deeper.  
  
Commander Ford and Kristen both kept their attention on Lucas and motioned for him to get ready to move. They knew Lucas couldn't afford to take too much time once the submarine was struck. Any amount of damage would begin to bring in water and it would only be a matter of time before vessel sunk altogether.  
  
The idea was that the sinking would be slow enough to allow Lucas to get away from his captors long enough to stow away in the escape pod and release it from the rest of the submarine.  
  
Ben Krieg put himself in charge of the rescue party that would be there to assist hauling in the escape pod once it was far enough away from the submarine.  
  
"Captain the foxtrot has dived over 100 feet," Tim now announced to the Captain, a sense of urgency in his voice.  
  
"Fire Mr Ortiz," Bridger ordered as he looked long and hard into the video- screen at Murphy.  
  
Murphy's grin had been wiped from his face as no sooner as Bridger had said fire did he feel the impact on the right hand side of his vessel.  
He could scarcely believe that Bridger would be so bold.  
  
"Now Lucas Now," Bridger said out loud to himself as he watched the chaos on board the other submarine take place.  
  
At the initial impact, Lucas held onto one of the metal supports as the submarine rocked to and fro from the blast. Frank and Carl were shouting at one another and Murphy about what to do.  
  
Lucas now gingerly got up on his feet and used whatever was along the way to help him keep upright as he tried to make his way along the narrow corridor back towards the escape pod.  
  
Frank and Carl were still arguing and shouting as water began sloshing around their feet. Murphy for some reason had looked back to where the kid should have been just in time to see the kid stumbling towards the rear end of the submarine.  
  
It was only then that it dawned on Murphy that he had been had. He roared with anger and was determined not to let the teenager get away: "He's getting away you idiots," he shouted as he started down the corridor after the fleeing Lucas.  
  
Lucas didn't remember much of his journey down the corridor. His body was protesting as his every movement as he pushed him to make the distance to the escape pod. He had put his hand on the sealing hatch door when he heard the shout from Murphy that he was escaping.  
  
He fumbled with the hatch until he managed to pry it open. His heart was almost bursting out of his chest at the thought that his escape attempt would be foiled and he would soon drown with the rest of them aboard the submarine.  
  
Back up the front of the submarine, Frank and Carl had totally given up on going after the teenager. They were now only interested in self-preservation as they tried in vain to stop the hole in the side of the submarine from getting too much bigger and engulfing them in sea water. The steel hull of the vessel could be heard to grunt and groan as the force of the water were beginning to take their toll on her outer structure.  
  
The video-link between the rogue submarine and the SeaQuest was now lost and Bridger and his crew could do nothing but watch from the main screen to see what was going to happen to Lucas.  
  
Ben was already in his sea-crab and on his way outside in the ocean to rescue the escape pod once it broke away.  
  
None of them were aware of the knife attack that had occurred or the injury that Lucas had sustained.  
  
Murphy got far enough along the corridor to see the back of the retreating teenager. Just as Lucas tried to step through to the safety of the pod, Murphy brought out the serrated knife he had held to Lucas's neck earlier. He stabbed aimlessly towards the teenager, with no real target area in mind and was rewarded with an agonizing scream of pain as the knife met with flesh.  
  
Lucas was desperate to get into the escape pod before Murphy could manage to drag him back away. His strength was quickly waning and he knew he wouldn't have any in reserve to fight of the man if he managed to grab a hold of him. He hadn't planned on the man still wielding a knife at him and could scarcely breathe due to the pain as he knife was driven into his soft calf muscle.  
  
Lucas legs immediately gave way and he found himself falling onto the floor of the escape pod. Adrenaline and a need to escape were the only things on his mind at the moment and it was this that made him drag himself across the grid floor and turn the hatch to seal himself in.  
  
Because the hatch was sealed from the inside, Murphy was unable to unlock it, although he certainly tried. The more he turned the angrier he became when it would give to let him get to the teenager.  
  
The screams of Frank and Carl further in front of the submarine, told Murphy that he had to give up on getting his hostage back for the time being and focus on getting his own hide out before the submarine sank or broke up.  
  
Murphy quickly donned on a wet suit and air tanks. It was almost beyond the range of any human survival at this depth, but he had to get away. He didn't even give the other men a second thought.  
  
Lucas's mind was not totally working as it should now as fatigue and pain took over. He could feel something warm and sticky running down his leg, but he didn't have the strength to look down and see what it was. He had to release the pod from the submarine yet.  
  
Lucas pulled himself away from the hatchway door towards the panelling for the pod. He knew that he didn't have much strength left and the pain was overwhelming his senses. The only control he could make out at the moment was a long red lever in the middle that would release the submarine. He pulled it and the pod began moving.  
  
Lucas now pulled the radio control on the floor near him, still unable to stand or even pull himself into a sitting position. The control's image wavered in front of him as the shock, cold and blood loss threatened to take consciousness away from him any second.  
  
"M-MAY M-MAYDAY....this is........" he tried to say through the mouth piece.  
  
"Lucas is that you?" Tim O'Neill said on the other end as he picked up the very weak signal coming from the escape pod. The words were barely above a whispered and Tim was having trouble hearing Lucas at all.  
  
Bridger snatched the receiver out of Tim's hand as he walked up to the communications station.  
  
"Lucas are you there? Lucas?" Bridger said with worry clearly in his voice.  
  
"M-MAY D.....M-MAY D......this is LUC..." was all he managed to get out the second time as his strength gave out and he passed out on the floor, radio mouth piece still clasped in his hand. The long gash on his leg continued to bleed and everything inside the escape pod was eerily quiet except for the desperate voices trying to read Lucas from the SeaQuest.  
  
"We have to get to him fast," Kristen now said as she was too afraid to speak out loud what might have become of the sick teenager.  
  
"Ben can you see him yet? How far away is the pod from the submarine?" Bridger now asked Krieg in the sea-crab.  
  
"I can see him now Captain, almost there. I will secure the tow line to the pod and bring it in," Ben said as he tried to focus on the task at hand. It was hard to keep his mind off the face that Lucas was no longer answering the crew's attempts to rouse him over the radio.  
  
Just as Ben finished his sentence on the radio to the SeaQuest, an almighty blast shook them all as the Russian submarine now exploded and broke up into large pieces. The pressure had built up to fatal levels and the hull could no longer hold together at the forces trying to drive it apart.  
  
Frank and Carl had still been trying to get out when they were caught in the blast. Murphy was no where to be seen. The force of the blast threw the pod around a little in the vacuum created. The teenager inside was unaware of the rough tossing he was being subjected to.  
  
"Captain the sub just blew to Kingdom come," Krieg said to the SeaQuest.  
  
"I see it thanks Lieutenant," Bridger said as he kept his eyes on the escape pod. They were still trying without luck to contact Lucas inside. The blast had happened a little too close for comfort and there was no telling what had happened to the teenager as he was tossed around inside. Bridger had to hope that the blast had not affected the pod too much.  
  
'I can't see him sitting inside the pod Captain," Ben said, his voice betraying his emotions as he told the crew to get ready to bring the pod into the SeaQuest.  
  
Bridger, Kristen and most of the senior crew now abandoned their posts to head to the launch bay, as Krieg informed them he would be shortly. Ford and a few of the others were already in the launch bay ready to pull the escape pod up to the surface and help get Lucas out.  
  
"Can you see him yet?" Kristen asked anxiously as she tried to peer through one of the small port hold sized windows of the pod as it was brought to the surface.  
  
The windows didn't allow to see much of anything inside. The pod itself was extremely awkward to move and heavy. It took almost ten minutes to get it into a position out of the water to where they could begin to attempt opening the main hatchway door.  
  
"Quickly get it open Nathan, I can see him lying on the floor inside," Kristen said as she peered through one of the side windows. She could see Lucas laying roughly were he had fallen after the blast. The lack of movement scared her to death.  
  
The hatchway door wasn't too difficult to open and Bridger made himself the first to enter the escape pod. He quickly spied who he was looking for and knelt beside the unconscious teenager on the floor. He put his hand on the still bleeding wound on his leg and wondered how on earth the teenager had gotten injured that way.  
  
"Kristen you better come in here, we are going to need you badly," Bridger now said but Kristen was already on her way in. Commander Ford tried to keep as many other crew members out of the way as possible. He knew they were all worried about Lucas as he was too, but they had to let Bridger and Kristen give the teenager the medical attention he needed.  
  
Ben Krieg had been tied up getting himself out of his sea-crab as quickly as possible but soon stood beside his crew mates, waiting for news of Lucas's condition.  
  
"This gash is bad and will need stitches," Kristen said to Nathan, giving her diagnosis as she went. "Here hold this towel over the wound to stop the bleeding while I take a look at the rest of him."  
  
"Ben get some blankets in here quickly please," Kristen now ordered as she noted the coldness of the boy's pale skin. Some of the coldness would be due to the water and some of it would be due to the blood loss and shock.  
  
Ben now passed two thick warm blankets from the supply store into the escape pod. He wanted to ask how Lucas was but knew that Kristen and Bridger would let them know as soon as they had taken care of the youth.  
  
"Lets prepare to get him off this hard floor and take him to Med Bay so I can attend to his leg," Kristen now said as she gathered her medical bag and stepped out of the pod.  
  
"Ben can you help Nathan carry Lucas to Med Bay please?" she asked.  
  
Ben didn't need a second invitation to assist and soon Lucas could be seen being carried between Ben and the Captain out of the pod towards Med Bay. A shocked gasp came from the rest of the crew as the teenager emerged and they all saw the blood-soaked towel around his lower leg.  
  
Commander Ford took over control of the clean up from the Russian submarine. They would have to secure the escape pod somehow and take it back to Head Quarters to be examined. They too had to make sweeps of the surrounding ocean to check that there was no survivors.  
  
***********************************************************  
  
Bridger stood beside the bed that Lucas lay on, watching Kristen's every move as she went.  
  
He watched as she firstly stripped the cold, still damp clothes off Lucas and replaced them with warm dry ones. She then tried to give him a thorough going over to gauge how unconscious he was before setting to stitch the gash in his leg.  
  
She only gave him a small amount of pain relief, certain that the cold and blood loss were enough to keep him under long enough not to feel her administrations.  
  
"Hold this please Nathan," she said politely as she saw the almost expressionless look on his face as he leaned against the wall. Bridger moved to where she asked and did everything she asked without a single word.  
  
About forty minutes after he had been taken to Med Bay, Lucas was now sleeping soundly in the bed with a mountain of blankets piled on him to try and warm his body. Kristen was concerned that the cold would take it's toll on Lucas's already weakened body.  
  
"Now, how are you holding up?" she asked after tucking in the last corner of blanket around the sleeping teenager and then draping a re-assuring arm around the Captain.  
  
Bridger's gaze was still focused on Lucas and his mind was playing back the memories from the submarine and prison cell. Even now Lucas was safe in bed before him, it was difficult not to worry about him.  
  
"Shouldn't you be worry more about him," Bridger said in reply, knowing that Kristen had already been scared out of her mind about the teenager and shed more than a few silent tears when they had found him collapsed on the floor of the escape pod.  
  
"Yes, but at the moment he is being taken well care of which is more than I can say for you," she replied. Bridger's eyes were tired from the lack of sleep and he had remained unshaven for two days now. He looked like he should be crawling in beside Lucas for a nice long sleep.  
  
"To be honest I don't know how I feel right at the moment Kristen," he said. "Is he going to be alright? he found himself asking out of habit.  
  
"Given time yes, the injuries will heal," she answered. "The main thing is to keep him warm at the moment. He has still be coughing off and on but thankfully he didn't have another attack just yet. His chest is slightly congested but hopefully I can clear that up with his regular Ventolin doses. We are lucky he had those antibiotics in the hospital or he might be much worse off right now.  
  
"How long do you think he will have this asthma for?" Bridger asked.  
  
"I don't know Nathan. I can't give you or Lucas a time when he might be free of it. But hopefully we are on the road to a full recovery. He just needs to keep taking it easy and looking after himself a little better for a while," Kristen said.  
  
"How long before he can walk on that leg?" Bridger enquired.  
  
"Only a few days and most of the soreness should be gone. Thankfully the gash wasn't that deep. I don't know how he got it. Maybe he can tell us when he wakes up and is feeling a little better. Most of the damage was to the muscle so we just have to wait until his body repairs it. Thankfully there was no blood vessel damage or to the bone itself."  
  
***************************************************************  
  
It was well into the next day before Lucas showed any signs of waking up. Ben Krieg was currently sitting beside the teenager's bed in Med Bay. Kristen had insisted he stay there instead of his own bed or Bridger's quarters. She wanted to keep a good eye on him for any signs of pneumonia from the cold or any complications from the stitches in his leg.  
  
"Ben," came the quiet voice as the teenager turned towards his friend dozing a chair.  
  
"Lucas, you're awake," Krieg shouted in delight and ran off towards Kristen's office before the teenager could say anything further.  
  
Ben soon came back with Kristen and Bridger in tow and stood beaming the teenager as Kristen took care to check all of his injuries.  
  
"Ben could you wait outside now please," Kristen asked the Lieutenant. "I will let you have more time with Lucas later on. Right now I want to check him over while he is awake and get some food and drink into him. I am sure he is just as anxious to spend time with you too soon enough."  
  
"Sure doc, I'll grab the food if you like," Ben said not put off by being asked to leave. He knew that Lucas would want to spend time with Bridger and Kristen first anyway. He was just happy that the kid was back safe where he belonged and where he would remain safe.  
  
"At least someone is happy to see me," Lucas now said, his voice still not at full strength. After he had finished the sentence, the teenager took a moment to take some long breaths and get some strength back into his body. He didn't feel as though he could do very much at all at the moment.  
  
"Make that double for me pal," Bridger replied as he took Lucas's hand in his own, grateful that the teenager was looking a look better today than he had yesterday. His face no longer had the washed out appearance it had held when they found him in the pod.  
  
"How are you feeling Lucas?" Kristen asked. "And I want a genuine answer young man."  
  
"I can barely keep my eyes open at the moment Kristen and my leg is killing me," Lucas replied honestly. He couldn't have hidden the truth at the moment even if he wanted to.  
  
"Good, that's exactly how I expect you will feel at least for the rest of today and probably tomorrow," Kristen said.  
  
"I am sorry to cause you all this much trouble again," he said as he felt guilty that he was going to have to rely on others to take care of him so much for a couple of days. He liked the fussing a little even if he said he didn't.  
  
"You are not causing any trouble Lucas," Kristen said in a gentle voice. "You have been through quite a lot and I am sure that there will be plenty to talk about. But right now I just want you to concentrate on getting better. You know you can talk to us about anything in a couple of days when your body has had a rest."  
  
"Thanks," Lucas said, a little embarrassed and for lack of finding something else to say.  
  
"What happened to your leg Lucas?" Bridger said, not wanting to get the kid reliving the nightmare too much too soon.  
  
"Murphy stabbed me just before I could get into the escape pod. For a minute there I really thought he was going to keep be aboard that sub," Lucas said as he tried to hide the fear that he had felt.  
  
"I don't know how you did it Lucas, but you managed to get away from him and the sub and I can't tell you how relieved I am to have you safe again," Bridger replied.  
  
Bridger wanted to stay with the teenager a lot longer to which Kristen had no objection. She doubted there would be too much conversation between them anyway as she saw the teenager starting to drift back to sleep again. She knew that Bridger needed him just as much as Lucas needed Bridger.  
  
Bridger and Kristen both went to a knock at the door, thinking the teenager had fallen asleep sufficiently. Unfortunately though the knock at the door had awoken Lucas just enough for him to understand the conversation he could here.  
  
"Did they find the bodies," Lucas heard Bridger ask Commander Ford. Commander Ford had come to give the Captain the latest update on retrieving the wreckage of the submarine and the bodies of the kidnappers. The U.E.O. had employed another team to complete the task but was keeping the SeaQuest informed of all the progress.  
  
"They found two bodies, we think they belonged to the other two men. No sign of Murphy anywhere," Ford said with no more having needed to be said.  
  
Kristen looked at Bridger and Bridger and Kristen. They now both looked back towards Lucas laying on the bed to see two blue eyes looking back at them, no words being spoken but the effect of what they had just heard all too apparent.  
  
THE END...........FOR NOW (HEHEHEH!!!!!!!!!!!!!)  
  
FINALLY FINISHED - Please don't burn me about the submarine information - everything I wrote was just made up including the depths of crush for humans and submarines.  
  
Murphy is still out there somewhere as you can see - I killed off the other two. Don't know quite where I will bring him back yet - I have two sidekicks from OWN MY OWN (Danny and Biff) in jail yet that need a new leader - maybe I can team them up together later ??????????????????  
  
This ending probably doesn't suit everybody but I hope you enjoyed reading the story overall. I appreciate everybody that reviews my stories and hope you keep them coming.  
  
Not sure which story to continue next - got lots in my head and some really good scenes that are just going to have you screaming at me - the suspense will kill you all in the end.  
  
Got four stories in my head were Lucas gets shot - two of them will be the best - one where the crew see it happen and he definitely looks dead - the other they hear the shot and assume he's dead. That's all the hints for now - hope you all keep reading.  
  
JULES 


End file.
